After three years of Wayne Brown at the top, mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni wants to offer Aucklanders a “different style” of leader — pitching herself as a grassroots consensus-builder even while carrying her Labour credentials.
If successful, the 44-year-old mum of twins would make history twice over – becoming the supercity’s first woman mayor and the first Māori mayor of Auckland.
It’s a prospect that both energises and daunts the rookie Whau councillor, who’s not standing for re-election for her ward and spoke to 1News about her candidacy.
“The feedback that I’ve had is that Aucklanders would like to have someone who’s younger, who’s more vibrant, and they’d like to have a woman,” she said.
Leoni (Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāi Takoto, and Ngāti Kurī) is the first sitting councillor to declare their candidacy for the mayoral election, which runs from September 9-October 11, with few others jumping at the opportunity. Her entry comes as Brown is expected to announce his re-election bid, with the incumbent believing he has unfinished business reforming council bureaucracy.
With only two years of experience as a councillor and little regional name recognition, she faces an uphill climb to make her pitch to voters. But Leoni wasn’t deterred: “I go back to the fact that Wayne Brown’s constituency in the Far North was actually smaller than both the constituencies that I’ve governed across here in Auckland.”
Before entering politics, she went to high school on Waiheke Island, studied at AUT, and worked in the social services sector in South Auckland. She then moved to the UK and ran a consultancy for 10 years, before returning in the mid-2010s.
Aucklanders want ‘different style’ of leadership
She was elected to the Waitematā Local Board in 2019, before going on to unsuccessfully contest the Waikato seat for Labour in the following year’s general election.
The local politician then went on to narrowly win her Whau seat in 2022. Leoni points to her record of delivering on promises in the west, where councillors have confirmed $15 million in funding for a new community centre in Avondale.
Brown insists he’s personally done nothing wrong. (Source: 1News)
Wayne Brown’s straight-shooting approach as Auckland’s mayor has drawn both praise and criticism, including a public dressing-down over his leadership during the city’s Anniversary Weekend floods two years ago.
Leoni presents herself with a deliberate contrast. She suggested a different style of leadership would help with council negotiations with central government.
“The type of leadership that I’ve seen from Wayne is — if it’s always going to be negative connotations out in the media about whoever’s in Government, it’s going to be difficult to get anything for our city. That’s where a different style of leadership comes into play.”
Brown’s office did not wish to comment on Leoni’s remarks.
Independent, but may seek Labour endorsement
Speaking to 1News, the one-time MP candidate bristled at suggestions she was using the mayoral race to raise her profile ahead of next year’s general election, calling the speculation “pure gossip”.
Though she’s running as an independent, Leoni said she would put herself forward for Labour’s endorsement process if another candidate sought it, adding she would “review” her campaign if someone else won the party’s backing.
“I’ve been more than integral with my colleagues,” she said. “It would only come up as an issue if someone else was to be endorsed by the party, and as far as I’m aware, no one else has put their name up for that, so I’ll be continuing as an independent.”
As the only sitting councillor who’s declared their candidacy, the candidate said she had a list of 60 volunteers signed up and ambitious goals for fundraising.
Some start-up money for her campaign has come from the proceeds of a property sale, according to Leoni, who said she had been involved in property investment since her 20s.
Social media and grassroots organising would be key parts of her plan to get more votes out of traditionally lower-voter turnout parts of Auckland, she added.
Keep rates low but no privatisation
Brown has boasted of tabling one of the lowest rates rises out of any metropolitan council area in the country — an average of 6.8% last year. It’s a track that Leoni said she was keen to stick to, saying she wanted to “keep the rates as low as possible”.
She also agreed with his push to introduce congestion charging in Auckland, which she described as “moving with the times”. Leoni also supported Brown’s moves to take greater control over council-controlled organisations, such as Auckland Transport.
Where she differs from Brown includes in having a vehement opposition to asset sales or privatisation.
The council said the money would be used to reduce council debt. (Source: 1News)
Leoni was part of a contingent of left-wing councillors who refused to compromise on selling the council’s airport shares. The move to divest ownership of about 18% of the airport was successful after other councillors compromised on the issue.
During this term in council, a 35-year lease of the city’s port had been on the table as well as steps towards privatising the running of council-owned pools and leisure centres.
Instead, Leoni suggested the council should be focused on persuading central government to return GST on rates, which Leoni said would come from improved relationships at the top.
The idea has previously been pushed unsuccessfully by Brown and predecessor Phil Goff.
“We shouldn’t have to raise the rates for Aucklanders to pay for something that I think central government should be contributing towards,” she said.
Another harbour bridge a transport priority
Leoni also wants to use more public-private partnerships for infrastructure projects.
“I’ve been giving examples about the airport train in Sydney. Of course, it costs $20 to catch, but if that’s what we have to do, then that’s what we need to.”
For transport, Leoni said another harbour crossing was a priority, but wanted a cheaper bridge, not a tunnel, near the existing crossing that served both general traffic and trains.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said construction is set to begin by the end of this decade. (Source: 1News)
She also pointed to the success of new motorway express bus services in West Auckland, citing it as a model that could be applied to lines in the south. Leoni also wanted the Western train line to be extended past the current terminus in Swanson.
How about more cycleways? “Absolutely support,” Leoni says, “but I think we need to make sure, as in terms of ratepayers, that we are reviewing and getting the best value of money for any piece of infrastructure across our city.”
A balancing act on more housing
Asked how she would tackle Auckland’s housing crisis, the prospective candidate said she supported more shared equity schemes, such as those by the Tāmaki Regeneration programme, and key worker housing schemes.
But infrastructure planning needed to take priority with building more housing, Leoni added.
“The feedback that I’m getting back from Aucklanders is that they’re really concerned that our infrastructure has not kept up with the rate of build, and we need to make sure that we’ve got the right formula,” Leoni said.
The mayor says the council’s hands are tied as it’s having to bow to the Government’s push for greater housing intensification. (Source: 1News)
She said she previously backed the former Labour government’s moves to bring in sweeping townhouse-style zoning across Auckland, but was now “clear” that housing settings needed a “review” after the city’s experiences with flooding.
But, Leoni said she supports “density done well” and “building up rather than out”. She added that she would be open to reviewing “character areas”, which housing advocates have decried as locking away swathes of central isthmus suburbs from more homes.
“We do need to look at it because we can’t continue to just keep saying no, in places that we know make sense to build more housing.”
‘Bringing Auckland together’
Asked why the mayoralty would be the best place for her skills to be applied, Leoni said: “The leadership skills that I’ve had in many of my various roles has always been about bringing people together. I’ve always been able to do that.
“The mayor’s role is really to bring Auckland together and provide that vision for the city. As a mother, as a woman, as someone who has travelled the world and believes we can take Auckland into the future. I think that we need the change,” she said.
