Kate Hawkesby: Bye Phil Goff, you're leaving Auckland in chaos

As a born and bred Aucklander, who I’m ashamed to say, once voted for Phil Goff as Mayor, I can honestly say, we won’t miss him.  You don’t need to live or work in Auckland to see what an absolute cluster it is. The place is a mess. The CBD’s been obliterated, the roads ruined, the infrastructure is shocking, the traffic’s the worst it’s ever been, the development of shoddy buildings and infill housing is depressing, and the public transport system an absolute joke. It’s not all Phil’s fault of course. But most of it is.  He cited in his retirement announcement the things he was proud of - containing the spread of Kauri die back was one. I rest my case. Show me the Aucklander who gives a toss about Kauri die back when they’re stuck in commuter traffic for hours on end and there’s not a bus or a train to be seen. He thinks Auckland is a world class city now. I’ve lived here all my life, and having also lived in London, I can tell you categorically, it’s not.  He also cites as part of his success, implementing a living wage for council employees. So he took ratepayers money to hand out to his employees. This smacks of a guy who never left the office. He was also obsessed with climate change – he got over two million native trees planted. So trees, a living wage for councillors, and closing some parks to stave off Kauri die back. This is Auckland city. Not a quaint seaside town.  We needed more focus on roads, traffic, transport, the CBD, and fighting for Aucklanders during an economically devastating string of lockdowns. But Phil was too cosy with his old Labour mates, didn’t challenge them, didn’t fight for us, didn’t get out into the streets enough to see what was really going on. So now the opportunity awaits for someone new, someone fresh, someone who – please for the love of God – fights for the country’s biggest city. Trouble is, mayoral candidates often seem like a line up of fringe characters who, once inside a Council building; are unfortunately only as strong as their Council. And that’s the other problem. People who proffer themselves up as council candidates are largely bored people who love admin, meetings and probably in a previous life wrote a lot of letters to the editor. In other words, not real people living in the real world. And half of it's our fault too.. because we don’t vote in local body elections, we don’t care enough. I was tempted to run for Mayor once, I jokingly suggested it on air and was blown away by the amount of support I got – people offering to fund and run my campaign, including support from politicians. It just goes to show anyone could put their hand up and get some semblance of a campaign behind them. I’d do it if I didn’t hate meetings and admin and councillors so much. But I’m passionate about Auckland and fixing it so please could someone awesome throw their hat in the ring. And please could the rest of us not waste our votes and pay attention.  The last time I wasn't paying attention I voted for Phil Goff, so you can see how dire this can get when we don't give it our full focus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.