Auckland Mayoralty 2019: Winners & Losers
Goff limps home to victory in an election that barely a third of the City has bothered to vote for and will preside over a still divided Council. Who are the winners and who are the losers in Auckland Mayoralty 2019?
WINNERS
Gridlock: The gridlock that traps Aucklanders into a life of misery thanks to mass immigration, pitiful infrastructure and unchecked tourism is the greatest winner. Nothing Goff is championing will fix the gridlock and this will be mirrored on the Council itself with the majority Len Brown once wielded whittled down to almost nothing. Expect nothing to get done in this term.
Wellington Bureaucrats: They will be thanking their lucky stars that they aren’t having to deal with Tamihere, the Wellington Bureaucrats who engineer the infrastructure gridlock that plagues Auckland gets a cuddle and a kiss from Goff and tucked into bed each night.
Unaccountable CCOs: The actual organisations in Auckland that have all the power get 3 more years of unaccountability. Yay!
Labour: By re-electing Goff, Labour won’t have to do anything serious about lifting investment to do anything meaningful in Auckland. They can continue to take Pacific Island votes for granted and can continue to ignore the housing crisis by pretending Phil’s doing something. Labour will be very relieved.
LOSERS
Democracy: Barely a third of Auckland even bothered to vote this election with a result that is one of the lowest in the modern age. The pathetic postal ballot, the lack of awareness of the issues and candidates, the frustration of the gutted councils that have no real power all combine to make this a pretence of legitimacy masquerading for democracy. Some may be cheering that they won, but what mandate can you possibly claim with barely a third voting?
Working Class Māori: They lost their chance to have Auckland’s first Māori Mayor for probably a generation.
Media: Despite massive coverage and a push to try and convince Aucklanders that these elections mattered, Aucklanders didn’t bother voting.
Right wing in Auckland: These guys couldn’t get laid wearing a banana costume in a monkey brothel.
So in short what has this result produced in Auckland? More status quo of nothing going nowhere fast mandated by barely anyone who has bothered to vote. It is a broken and damaged democratic process that has become a sad joke, like an expensive cycle way that only Simon Wilson and the staff at Spinoff use.
“Barely a third of Auckland even bothered to vote this election”
Bugger off with that assessment. The vast majority I know, chose not to vote – chose!
They made the decision that the reforms in the 80’s, followed by the recent dismantling of democracy in the creation of the super city. It was no longer a game they want to play.
This city is a joke. For all the large things you point out boomer and so much more. My assessment it’s the collection of little things from curbs falling apart, to street lights never being fixed no matter how many times you call council – have broken a lot of people.
The city is in trouble and this victory by the beige centre – is what you deserve for voting.
The old towns in Auckland were not perfect, but it was more democratic, and hell of a lot more accessible than this lame excuses of local government.
where is true visionary like Robbie
The pattern of voting in Auckland suggests that the citizens’ preferences were :- a) dont vote at all b) vote for a pakeha mayor c) vote for a maori mayor. Let that sink in.
Martyn! dosen’t Matter if he’s maori or not ..(“Auckland’s first Māori mayor…”)
Disappointing , fuel tax on the way , and only now Goff say’s he’s gonna prioritise a CCO investigation and they just had a pay rise on top of their 1/2 million $$$ salary. Goff’s had 3 years to do this already , f/s ..
Why would u actually vote for Goff …
NZ Inc is the most perfectly organised and corrupt dictatorship of any place I have ever been to. They hold so called elections every so often, also local body ones, every three years only. Campaigns are about selling lolly scramble promises, dangling carrots in front of voters noses and bullshitting your way through Crosby Textor and even more professional style.
As it so happened, in Auckland about thirty to perhaps thirty three percent of enrolled and entitled voters bothered to vote. Most are politically illiterate, as the many conversations I have had with so called Jafas over the year have proved to me without doubt.
They cast votes on some form of preference, it may be as simple as voting for the ‘lesser evil’.
The outcomes are highly predictable, as the establishment candidates, that is those supporting the status quo or only symbolic changes, they tend to win. Do not scare the horses, that seems to be the thought of many, or the bird in my hand is the one I know, never mind the one I do not know, better not scare the establishment, so stay with the ones ‘on status quo course’.
So here we have it yet again, one Phil the Goofy Goof one, without having to put up much of a fight. Most others were small time wannabe important personalities with oddities. One only real challenge disqualified himself with some wild comments during the campaign.
We have, as I heard, about 150 thousand or so of perhaps a million of entitled voters determine who the mayor is, and who will be sitting on the Council and boards.
Wow, that is ‘democracy’ is it? I cannot believe the shallow BS that goes on here, well to be honest, I know it full well, this country is a gigantic JOKE of sorts, the inhabitants are mostly brainwashed dumbos of various backgrounds. Those that may care do not even bother anymore, to vote, as it is a waste of time.
Mo matter how sincere and committed you may be the big parties and business funders will ensure that only the message of ‘the worthy’ contenders is listened to, that is according to their point of view.
If you dare rock the boat, you will be an idiot to run, as they will ridicule and destroy your reputation well ahead of voting days end.
But nobody really cares, let the cars roll on on the motorways, streets and roads, let some buses carry the poor and wannabe greenies, let the business do what they want and ‘need’ to do, verbal diarrhea about environmental and other goals to be achieved mean nothing, and will be irrelevant virtue signaling.
We are screwed, we are screwed, as I said many times, the ‘left” in NZ Inc is totally irrelevant, or FAKE and bought by the powers that be a long time ago.
Goff votes in by about fifteen percent of voters or by ten percent of the population, wow, you really have NO convincing mandate, mate. Go to hell you fake Mayor and BS artist.
We are certainly SCREWED NOW!
While critical of Martyn at times, a good analysis and summary.
So I note that all these BS ‘local body election reports’ by MSM only talk about the ‘mayors’ and vain personalities standing and winning or losing. But what about the actual make up of the local authorities and so? We get next to no info on who won and lost in the local boards and on Council seats.
On ‘The Nation’ this morning they dug Roger the Nasty Douglas out of his assigned grave, to hit out at Susan St John, a true Saint, given her respectful and reserved manner.
The so called ‘panel’ on that program was not even going there where Susan wanted to put the focus, being the poor and losers in this society, they rather speculated who may get more funding from the minister, who may win here and there, and all other kind of BS.
NZ Inc is a corrupt little shithole, as I have learned LONG ago, and as some here still do not get.
Wake up, people, you will change nothing by voting, more is needed, to wake the idiots out of their slumber, more action, wide scale and RADICAL, and decisive and effective.
This system must be dismantled before it can be ‘reformed’ it is screwed.
“On ‘The Nation’ this morning they dug Roger the Nasty Douglas out of his assigned grave, to hit out at Susan St John, a true Saint, given her respectful and reserved manner.
“The so called ‘panel’ on that program was not even going there where Susan wanted to put the focus, being the poor and losers in this society, they rather speculated who may get more funding from the minister, who may win here and there, and all other kind of BS.”
Yes, that was depressing. Ol’ Rog looked like he was more than one foot in the grave – some archaeological relic someone dug up from a different millennium. Bumbling his facts, stumbling over words, – I would not be surprised if they had a nurse in the background propping him up and ready with a bib. Eg, he was rambling on about the “5% GST” at one stage. Huh?
What’s with these people?? (..Whoever was responsible for hauling to poor old geezer out of his cot.)
Please note, my problem is NOT with Sir Rog’s age, it is the fact that he has not yet moved into the 21st Century, consciousness-wise. He’s just not there – he’s still living as though it’s 30 plus years ago, during which time we’ve entered a whole new millennium. There’s a world (or planet) of difference between the times then, and the time we’re living in now.
NZ Economics, instead of old fashioned ‘have more babies’, have more IMMIGRANTS, to keep the ‘
growth’ curve going up.
What a primitive shit country this has become:
https://www.stats.govt.nz/topics/population
MOST brainwashed populace within the so called ‘developed world’, that is Kiwis.
Yip , while kiwi’s work and save for a family , their oppurtunities are undermined by immigration and is why birthrate is at all time low for NZ’ers
What a primitive shit country x2
No doubt they thought John Tamihere and his right wing running mate Christine Fletcher dont represent them, they certainly dont represent the working class. Labour dont take the pacific vote for granted and they are not ignoring the housing crisis they inherited from National either.
As if Goofy represents the working class, you are f****** deluded.
No need to be abusive and use infantile name calling, doesn’t make for a valid argument. Goff is certainly more representative than Tamihere and Fletcher.
Yes, we have no control over the Council Controlled Organizations, the Wards Councilors have no control over them, the Local Board councilors ( how many of these people does it take to change a light bulb?), have no control over them. Wonder why voting is not exactly productive?
And even more concerning is an awful lot of these punters were candidates for both to get on one or the other positions or sat in other local board areas to have a dollar each way. What a farce. These are professional Councilors, like it’s some kind of career, who know exactly how to keep sucking away on the largesse that is the ratepayers tit and never get unelected. The same tired faces, never held to account and impossible to get rid of if they play the game. And they cost a small fortune but do precisely what? You guessed it, to have NO control of the very organizations that make up this council.
Christ, if our central government representatives gave a flying shit Aucklands council representatives would run it and therefore at least could be democratic. But they don’t or equally as worrying, are totally unaware.
Sam marked himself as safe during Auckland cities infrastructure crises. Because he wisely chose 12 years ago to live in Australia instead.
Tamihere came across as bigoted, narcissistic and a liar. His Trump like tactics, including his speech last night showed him up to me as someone who could not be trusted. He’s blaming everyone but himself.
dcnbwz: “Tamihere came across as bigoted, narcissistic and a liar. His Trump like tactics, including his speech last night showed him up to me as someone who could not be trusted. He’s blaming everyone but himself.”
I completely agree. I note also that by today, he was playing the race card: “people didn’t vote for me because of my ethnicity”. I’d remarked to a family member a couple of days ago that I was sure that he’d do this if he lost. Right on cue….
I don’t suppose it’s occurred to him that obviously other Maori people didn’t vote for him in any numbers, either; no doubt for the reasons you adduce above.
He’s a sore loser.
What’s the point of a Maori mayor if he is a sexist old bigot? Better off waiting for a real Maori leader to come forth, and it will happen. But it won’t be Tamihere, the tide is turning on men like him.
Women, understandably, don’t like Tamihere. And we are a voting force, forget that at your peril.
You can, it’s called voting for the other guy. 68% didn’t, that’s more people than there is woman living in Auckland.
Tauranga showed it is very much a red neck city based on there local council elections