On Friday 15th of December, Auckland Councillors discussed the Mayor’s draft proposal for the annual 2023/24 budget.
While the budget proposal passed and was sent for public consultation, it has proved controversial as it includes deep cuts to services and selling Auckland Airport shares.
Mayor Brown also caused controversy when he suggested Auckland Airport would be seeking capital investment before the Airport themselves announced it.
David spoke to Councillor Mike Lee about the topic
Billy Joel is playing at Eden Park this Saturday. However, concertgoers will not be able to take the train to the venue as KiwiRail is closing the network for repairs.
Auckland’s rail is undergoing an almost 300 million dollar upgrade and rebuild in time for the opening of the City Rail Link.
This means large swathes of Auckland’s rail network will be out of use for the next three years.
David spoke to Councillor Mike Lee about the issue and how it will affect Aucklanders.
Auckland Council has found itself with an over quarter of a billion dollar shortfall for the 2023-2024 budget.
Mayor Wayne Brown and councillors are now looking at solutions to plug the gap, which could be anything between double digit rate rises or severe cuts.
David spoke to Councillor Mike about what caused the budget deficit and what may be some of the solutions.
Various criticisms have been levied at the level of infrastructure funding available in West Auckland, especially when compared to other areas in Tamaki Makaurau.
This comes after continuous issues with the western line train services, which are being consistently cancelled for repairs without a substantive bus system to replace it.
There’s also bee chat about delays in building a new complex in the North West of Auckland, which has been in talks for years but faced various delays.
To learn more about what the council is doing to curb these issues, Liam spoke to Shane Henderson, the councillor for the Waitakere Ward.
Auckland's current council term has now properly begun, with councillors being sworn in and beginning to set the groundwork for the next three years.
This includes the swearing in of new Deputy Mayor Delsey Simpson, who has made clear that she and mayor Wayne Brown have some differences in council approaches they’ll need to work through.
Waitakere Ward Councillor Shane Henderson has previously worked with Simpson, so for today's City Counselling segment Liam and Shane had a chat about what she could bring to Tamaki Makaurau.
They also spoke about the mass delays affecting Auckland's Western Train Line, and internet coverage in the outer western ranges.
Last week the Tāmaki Makaurau local elections concluded, seeing an overall shift to the centre right exemplified by the landslide win of Wayne Brown.
This was largely due to an overrepresentation of older, upper-class people in the vote, a symptom of incredibly low voter turnouts across the board.
Many people criticised the accessibility of local election voting, with minister for local democracy Nania Mahuta being one of many who didn’t receive their papers in the mail.
In our regular City Counselling segment, we’ve had a chat with Shane Henderson, who has recently been re-elected to the Waitakere ward seat about the elections and his upcoming goals.
Local elections are in their final stretch, with a little under 24 hours to go before voting officially closes.
Postal ballots were closed last Tuesday, however you can still vote by putting your envelope into a ballot box available near Countdown supermarkets, libraries, and various other places.
The voter turnout this year has been grim, with lower levels of voter turnout across Auckland especially amongst younger people.
Many have criticised the way the local government elections have been rolled out, with issues of voting papers not turning up or too many barriers to voting.
Liam spoke to city councillor Pippa Coom about the local elections, why they’re important, and why there's been such a low turnout.
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