Wayne Brown (New Zealand politician)

Wayne Kelvin Forrest Brown (born 22 August 1946) is a New Zealand politician and the mayor of Auckland since the 2022 Auckland mayoral election.

He has worked in leadership roles in several large New Zealand businesses and public infrastructure organisations.

Born in Auckland in 1946, Brown studied engineering at the University of Auckland before becoming a property developer in the Bay of Islands.

He has also served as a director of TVNZ, Māori TV, Transpower, Vector Ltd, and was once chair of the Land Transport Safety Authority.

Brown was born in Auckland on 22 August 1946, and was educated at Auckland Grammar School.

He went on to study engineering at the University of Auckland from 1964 to 1967, and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree.

He then spent several years overseas.

After returning to New Zealand, Brown established an engineering consulting practice in Auckland.

In 1974, he married his wife, Toni, and the couple went on to have two children.

Two years after marrying, they moved to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands.

An engineer by training, Brown is a property developer.

He has served as a director of many New Zealand organisations, both public and private.

These include TVNZ, Māori TV, Transpower, Vector Ltd, and was chair of the Land Transport Safety Authority.

In the 2000s he chaired the Government-owned telecommunications firm Kordia.

The underlying legislation, the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000, did not allow a person elected to a district health board to also be a member of a second board, but this had been overlooked.

Brown remained the appointed chair of the Auckland DHB.

Brown was appointed chairman of the Northland District Health Board and Tairāwhiti District Health Board in January 2001 when district health boards were established; he had previously chaired the respective Hospital and Health Service (HHS) boards.

In December 2001, Brown was appointed to chairman of the Auckland District Health Board and remained chair of Tairāwhiti DHB.

During the 2001–2004 local government term, Brown was forced to resign from Tairāwhiti DHB, where he had been elected, due to an administrative error by the Ministry of Health.

Brown was reappointed by the Health Minister Annette King for another term in October 2004, but the new Health Minister, David Cunliffe, chose a new chair for Auckland from December 2007, appointing Patrick Snedden.

Brown describes his performance as chair of these boards as a successful "fixer".

However, several anonymous senior medical staff have been reported to dispute this.

He was mayor of the Far North District Council from 2007 to 2013.

He entered politics in 2007, winning the mayoralty of the Far North District in a landslide.

In the October 2007 local elections, Brown challenged the three-term mayor of Far North District, Yvonne Sharp, and had a "landslide victory".

Brown received 10,081 votes, almost twice as many as Sharp, from the total Far North population of 55,000.

He appointed Sally Macauley as deputy mayor.

For the October 2010 local elections, Brown, at 64, delayed announcing his candidacy "just in case someone younger and brighter came forward" to continue his work, but when this did not happen, he put his nomination forward in August.

He narrowly defeated John Goulter, and appointed Ann Court as deputy mayor.

After criticism for the collusion of his business and personal interests, a third term was denied to him almost as emphatically in 2013.

In 2022, Brown launched a campaign for the mayoralty of Auckland, a city he had few business ties to.

In the election he gained 45% of the votes cast on a turnout of 35%, compared to the 31% given to the runner up, Efeso Collins.

In the October 2013 local elections, Brown was decisively defeated by John Carter (8521 votes to Brown's 2502), who had represented the area in parliament until 2011.

As mayor, Brown received some criticism in an enquiry by the auditor general for blurring roles and was advised "to separate his personal and official roles more carefully in future".

In September 2022, Brown stated that he had "learnt a lesson" and this was unlikely to be a problem in Auckland as most of his current business interests are outside Auckland.

On 29 March, Brown launched his Auckland mayoral campaign at an event hosted by the Avondale Business Association, with a plan to "Fix Auckland".

In 2019, he led a review for the New Zealand Government which recommended shifting the Port of Auckland to Marsden Point in the country's north.

There was some controversy around this idea, with other reports suggesting it would be more expensive or that the port should be shifted to Manukau harbour.

In 2020 the government deferred its decision until 2021.

, his business interests include a public bar in Ōtāhuhu (the Milestone Bar), where he is a member of the Business Association, and at least one company directorship and shareholding.