A south Auckland councillor did not mince her words when asked how she felt about working with re-elected mayor Wayne Brown again, after a “politically difficult” first term.
“It’s a necessary evil, and that’s democracy,” Manukau councillor Lotu Fuli said.
Fuli and Brown, both first elected into office in 2022, aren’t strangers to butting heads.
The most recent one was in August when Brown called brown people lazy, and accused Fuli of playing a “Pacific victim” card.
Brown’s comments followed a public grilling over councillors not attending meetings in person. He claimed the councillors attended very few workshop.
At the time, Fuli said the mayor’s comments were wrong and damaging.
Brown said he was looking forward to working with Fuli this term.
“I welcome all councillors back to the table. I’m looking forward to working with everyone, including Lotu,” Brown said.
Fuli and fellow Manukau ward councillor Alf Filipaina comfortably retained their seats, with Fuli’s votes climbing to 13,184 and Filipaina to 11,952 votes in the preliminary results.
Fuli said she was honoured and happy to be back as a councillor and, despite her history with Brown, would respect the office.
“He [Brown] was returned with a very clear mandate and I respect that.”
Fuli said at the end of the day, Brown was the mayor of Tāmaki Makaurau and they had to work with him.
“I want to work constructively with him going forward, because he does hold the majority around the table this time around.
It will be key in terms of delivering positive outcomes for their communities.
“It will be keen to have him on board, as well as the other councillors. At the end of the day, Alf and I are just two votes out of 21 around that table, and we have to try and build relationships back up.”
Fuli said the election campaign was challenging this time around.
“Right from the get go, the campaign felt different - it wasn’t quite as positive as what we’re used to. We had a whole lot more Meet the Candidate events to go to and we were going around speaking as much as we could to our people.
“But the people on the ground, that community in terms of grass roots level, were really positive towards us, so that was really encouraging.
“But you can never be sure until the votes come in.”
She firmly believed people could have differences of opinion, with different political backgrounds, but still work effectively together for the benefit of Aucklanders.
For the next three years, she wanted the council to look into easing the burden of the high cost of living on Aucklanders.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
