City Counselling

Earlier this week, Councillor Julie Fairey moved a resolution to investigate Auckland Council’s involvement with companies that are complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. 

And this week, Auckland Council launched an AI virtual assistant to report issues such as graffiti, roaming dogs, and noise complaints.

For City Counselling, Wire Host Caeden spoke with Councillor Julie Fairey about both of these topics.

This week, the government announced another change to Plan Change 120, Auckland’s plan for future housing developments across the city. Originally, the plan proposed a minimum housing capacity of 2 million homes, but many in central suburbs raised concerns that intensification could harm the character of their neighbourhoods. In February, the government lowered the minimum capacity to 1.6 million, which Auckland’s council and mayor spoke out against. 

Despite the disagreement, council developed new plans for the 1.6 million capacity. This week, however, the government announced plans to lower the minimum capacity further to 1.4 million, forcing council to make further changes to the plans. 

Also these past few weeks we’ve seen disagreements between the government and council over how best to manage the fuel crisis. The government has focused on payouts to middle and lower class families with children, but Mayor Wayne Brown says a better solution could involve subsidising public transport. 

To discuss each of these issues, News Director Castor spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey.

Given rising fuel prices, Auckland council has been under pressure to provide support for those struggling and invest in infrastructure to ensure the city does not face similar crises in future. 

Despite these pressures, Auckland Council is hamstrung, stuck between rising costs of fuel and limited funding without central government support. 

To discuss what support Auckland Council can provide, for City Counselling this week News Director Castor spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey.

Auckland Council’s annual plan is currently in consultation, open until Sunday 29th of March. The plan focuses on two key areas for Auckland Council - public transport and water infrastructure.

The public transport element is particularly focused on the opening of the City Rail Link, which council says will massively boost public transport capacity and connectivity across Auckland. The operational costs of the CRL, among other reasons, will contribute to an 8% rates increase for the average-value residential property in 2026/2027. 

The water infrastructure upgrades are also significant, as they follow years of countrywide water infrastructure neglect. As wastewater issues are seen across the country in recent weeks and months, Auckland Transport is looking to make infrastructure upgrades to avoid similar scenarios. 

This past week has also seen the government propose move-on orders for rough sleepers in cities across the country. The move-on orders have been criticised by some, who say they unnecessarily punish our most vulnerable populations. 

For City Counselling this week, News Director Castor spoke to Councillor Julie Fairey about each of these issues, beginning with the annual plan.