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PJ TAYLOR has asked Auckland Mayor-elect Wayne Brown and Franklin councillor-elect Andy Baker how they felt after civic voting results were made public, and what they’re focussed on initially for the three-year term ahead.
Tomorrow, Friday, the final results are released for the Auckland Council elections held over the past three months, and for the successful representatives, the work begins on Halloween. Spooky.
That’s the evening on Friday, October 31, when Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and the 20 councillors are sworn in at the grand old Auckland Town Hall.
They’re asked to sign a formal declaration, promising to “act in the best interests of the community they were elected to represent”, says the council.
Wayne Brown describes his victory in the mayoralty race “a pretty good result”.
“I’m humbled Aucklanders have given me their vote of confidence for another term to finish the job. We’ve made lots of progress, but there’s still plenty to do.
“It’s a fresh start for the new council and I look forward to working with the elected members who’ve won the privilege of representing their communities and to deliver for Aucklanders.”
In Monday’s preliminary election results, Andy Baker received 10,827 votes, ahead of Dene Green’s 4,349 and Les Thomas’ 3,285.
Andy Baker says: “I’m really humbled by the result for me. Thank you to those who voted and voted for me.
“I’m really excited to get going this term as there are some big things we need to deal with.
“I’m also pleased for my Team Franklin colleagues, in particular the new candidates who all worked incredibly hard to get their names out there and to understand the challenges of being a rural area in an urban-dominated region and council.
“From a regional perspective, I want to take a lead role in the transport area where we are facing a significant change in governance with increased accountability for elected reps through the changes to how and what Auckland Transport does,” Baker says.
“We must get this right and I’m a little worried having been on the AT board for a period that the complexities of the entire transport system are not well understood by many in and on council and that there are some huge risks involved.
“I also want to take a closer look at our regulatory areas as we need to be able to make things like consenting more efficient and easier along with improving knowledge and understanding of rural Auckland within our planning and strategy departments.
“Locally, I’m keen to support our rural industries as they face ever-increasing challenges to actually being able to do what they do – for example, huge costs and requirements relating to groundwater takes and consents,” says Baker.
“There’s no point protecting land for growing when we make it too expensive for them to grow.”
Auckland mayoralty results after preliminary results on October 13 (top two candidates in field of 12): Wayne Brown (Fix Auckland) 177,954, Kerrin Leoni 75,441.
Auckland councillor results by ward on October 13:
Albany (2): Victoria Short (Fix Auckland), John Watson (Putting People First), with former Auckland councillor Wayne Walker trailing his longstanding Putting People First running mate by 563 votes on Monday.
Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa (2): Julie Fairey (City Vision), Christine Fletcher (C&R – Communities and Residents).
Franklin (1): Andy Baker (Team Franklin).
Howick (2): Bo Burns, Maurice Williamson (Independent).
Manukau (2): Alf Filipaina (Labour), Lotu Fuli (Labour).
Manurewa-Papakura (2): Daniel Newman (Manurewa-Papakura Action), Matt Winiata (Manurewa-Papakura Action).
Maungakiekie-Tāmaki (1): Josephine Bartley (Labour).
North Shore (2): Richard Hills (Positive Leadership for the Shore), John Gillon (Putting the North Shore First).
Ōrākei (1): Desley Simpson (Fix Auckland) – elected unopposed.
Rodney (1): Greg Sayers (Independent) – elected unopposed.
Waitākere (2): Shane Henderson (Labour) and Ken Turner (WestWards) were successful, with former Auckland councillor Linda Cooper missing out in third place.
Waitematā and Gulf (1): Mike Lee (Auckland Independents).
Whau (1): Sarah Paterson-Hamlin (Labour) won, with former Auckland mayoralty candidate Craig Lord (WestWards) finishing second.
- For the full list of Auckland Council local elections’ Preliminary Results, go to: https://voteauckland.co.nz/en/2025-local-election-results.html
