Written By:
mickysavage - Date published:
7:52 am, November 22nd, 2018 - 43 comments
Categories: auckland supercity, elections, local body elections, local government, national, phil goff, Politics, supercity -
Tags: simon o'connor
National is keenly looking for someone to stand in the next Super City elections as the Mayoral candidate for the right.
Someone who is well known, a household name. Someone who occupies a senior position in the party. Someone can relate to Auckland’s ethnic and religious diversity. Someone who can campaign in the South and West of Auckland where every successful Mayoral campaign has been won so far.
Ladies and Gentlemen National has found this candidate. It is …
… drumroll …
Simon O’Connor!
Simon O’Connor??
From Bernard Orsman at the Herald:
The National MP for Tāmaki, Simon O’Connor, is considering running for the Auckland mayoralty next year.
O’Connor said he had been approached by people involved in local and national politics about putting his hat in the ring and is considering challenging Phil Goff for Auckland’s top job at next year’s local body elections.
Goff, the former Labour MP for Mt Roskill who led the Labour Party between 2008 and 2011, is expected to announce early next year he will seek a second term.
Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere and two-time mayoral candidate John Palino are also considering standing for the mayoralty.
O’Connor said a lot of his constituent work related to local issues and concerns, like rates, the regional petrol tax, the upgrade of Tamaki Drive and cycleways.
He said the “council needs to be kicked into shape”, become more accountable and show stronger leadership.
O’Connor started off with an attack on Goff over a cost blowout in moving Speedway from Western Springs.
The problem is that either his maths or his comprehension is not very good. He said:
Moving the Western Springs Speedway is going to cost $30m more than originally thought! How has the figure tripled in six months? This is disgraceful. The Mayor needs to do much more than just ask “hard questions”, he has to show some leadership.
Simon will have to improve his maths if he wants to become Mayor. The cost has gone from $13 million to $30 million an increase of $17 million. The $30 million is the total cost, not the increase.
He says he will decide before Christmas whether to ramp things up and make a formal decision in the new year. No doubt National’s pollsters will be busy.
The current rise of populism challenges the way we think about people’s relationship to the economy.We seem to be entering an era of populism, in which leadership in a democracy is based on preferences of the population which do not seem entirely rational nor serving their longer interests. ...
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Tbf they can’t do any worse that Goff or “Hit myself in the face weirdly. Leg over” Lenny
Potentially unpopular opinions:
1. Goff has held things together remarkably well. The Mayoralty is one of the most difficult jobs in politics. He has managed to hold costs and at the same time significantly increase investment into perserving the city’s environment.
2. But for his personal difficulties Len will go down in history as one of the city’s best mayors. The day that the City Rail Link is opened is a day that all Aucklanders should toast Len for his contribution to the city’s future.
And both of them worked as mayors across the left and right, including councillors, community and business stakeholders. Does a meek Nat MP from Tamaki have a hope of doing the same?
Of course not. A Nat MP is always about promoting business at everyone else’s expense and they can’t do that even when working with a Left that’s almost as business friendly as the Nats.
Goff is a lame duck leader, 12 hour council meetings are a testament to that. Defending him is just laughable. And the wholw headline assumes a candidate needs to be some household celebrity. Says a lot about the socialist mentality
Have to agree
Len was great managed to get some real traction on important issues, in a very hostile environment. If he had managed to keeps pants on he would have gone on to be a multi-term mayor and real change would have been achieved.
Goff has been unable to get consensus on anything and has therefore achieved the sum amount of fuck all.
Bring back pants down Brown 😊
Len was a self absorbed show boater who when push came to shove had no real appreciation for those around him.
I was in a parade he reviewed for the Navy a number of years ago. A hot day. He was instructed to inspect the parade. This normally consists of walking quickly along and talking to the occasional person. He literally took more than an hour. I would normally put this down to him not being aware of what he was doing but people started falling over left and right. By the end of the parade there was almost 2 whole platoons of people who had fallen over, been treated, and recovered enough to go and stand again. The whole time he was walking around those escorting him were tying to speed him up. Pointing out the harm to those on parade. He didn’t give a shit
I drove for him a couple of years later. I asked him about it and he just laughed. Apparently he felt it was pretty funny. He can go eat a shit sandwich if you ask me.
Those opinions are not unpopular with me for one they are relevant to the time Aucklanders and most of NZers find themselves and the country in and have who have woken up to that. The old quote about some of the people some of the time and then all of them etc and then there are those determined never to pleased about anything ever again.
If you are looking for a “Simon who?” look no further than the one called Bridges who advertised widely a public question/answer meeting in his own home town of Tauranga on Monday night and got, according to the local paper report, 20 attendees – yes just the 20 – it did not say whether that incl Bridges himself and the reporter/photographer.
Palino, Tamahere, O’Connor – all I see there is a bunch of contenders for the 7% going begging now that Penny Bright is no longer with us.
I see three egos.
Aren’t all politicians and prospective politicians egotistical?
Three amegos?
Tamahere should have a good show, he has got a good brain and is commercial, he just needs to engage his brain b4 he opens his mouth, and not say publicly what he is thinking personally about certain people. ie females in the Labour Party.
An ex priest living in the waterfront suburbs of East Auckland – yep, should have as much broad appeal as National’s last failed mayoral candidate
He wasn’t ordained.
Is he an ordained monk ?
is there something about the name Simon, which means they fail basic arithmetic?
As usual slim picking for Auckland council. I hope a decent centre left candidate runs who is not a woke leftie with a mistress on the pay roll, so there is someone to vote for.
WTF is a ‘woke leftie’?
A left wing nut job who is extreme in their opinions and has irrational justifications to their views in a similar vein of distortion, impracticality and lack of empathy as the far right but for the far left (however they are somehow agreeing on a lot lately).
You appropriate decades old African-American vernacular that refers specifically to the political consciousness of black people of their own oppression and liberation, bastardise their vernacular, and then sneer.
Nice.
/
Lest we forget, Simon O’Connor is the one who brought up euthanasia to score political points on Jacinda over youth suicide.
His wife was allegedly the teacher who played the creationist video for her students.
I’d like to see a new MP for Tamaki, but not move him on to the Mayor!
Oh that Simon. The one who believes the earth is only 4000 years old?
Ahhh, this needs to be made widely known ASAP.
Jess NZ (5) … well between the pair of them (Mr & Mrs), an O’Connor mayoralty should take Auckland back to the dark middle ages!
That’s what National seems to want. To take us back to the Dark Ages and feudalism complete with serfdom. The Exclusive Brethren certainly do and they support National as we found out.
What is the socio economic breakdown of the Tamaki Electorate these days mainly white collar and chinks ? I think they have shifted all the blue tongues out now, especially around the Tamaki Estuary ?
ROFL.
So even Simon Bridges’ own brother in law* is trying to leave the sinking ship?
* Married to the sister mentioned in JessNZ’s comment at 5.
He’s probably been asked to move on by Simon to make way for one of the 2 new a Chinese MPs as his “question rate” is falling behind.
Q: “Who do I make this cheque out to?”
Don’t forget the ‘separate’ cheques under $15k
heh, will he attend the Big Gay Out one wonders as per Banksie…
the last SuperMayor election saw multiple candidates from the right tripping over each other for a minuscule share of the approx 38% turnout
We don’t need a right-wing mayor because:
– we’ve got one in Phil Goff
– we’ve had generations of them and their craven toadying to business interests has created the irredeemable f**ked upness that is Akl
/agreed
Has Gfoffloffle upset his ceo?
O’Connor won’t be running for mayor:
1 He wouldn’t win and he knows it.
2 It would be a waste of a lot of money because he knows he wouldn’t win.
3 He could be MP for Tamaki until 2048 if he wants.
4 Being an Opposition MP for Tamaki is a lot easier than being Mayor of Auckland and he knows that.
His campaign slogan: Not the other Simon.
So he’s not on the Bridges bus then?
The Good Simon.
he is a piss useless member of parliament and the way he keeps fiddling with his tie when he orates is very creepy.
the way he keeps fiddling with his tie when he orates is very creepy.
Haaaaaa cackle snigger !
Better than children
Is he an ordained monk ?