I start this column with a huge thanks to so many of you for voting for me and having me back as your Auckland Councillor for the North Shore. It is such an honour to represent the North Shore, working for all of you, hearing your stories, taking on your ideas and complaints then figuring out how to get the best for you and our city.

It was a fantastic feeling to win the election again and have my fellow Councillor Chris Darby back alongside me. It was a rough three years for households and businesses across our city, a challenging time for council and a tough campaign but we worked hard and feel so proud to be back around the Auckland Council table. It is a privilege to help lead this city with your strong support.

A big congratulations to our new and returning Devonport-Takapuna and Kaipātiki Local Board members. I look forward to working collaboratively together to continue to achieve positive outcomes with, and for our community.

Congrats to everyone else who won their seats and commiserations to those who didn’t get across the line this time.

It has been straight back to work for us. Councillors have been completing induction workshops and meeting with local residents. I have had a number of meetings and conversations with Mayor Wayne Brown already and I have committed to working with him to ensure our city moves forward positively.

It is a huge job with lots of challenges and opportunities ahead. As I said during the campaign some of the big priorities for me are our environment, climate change, improving our public transport system and making our streets safer for all users including those who walk and cycle, improving water quality and investing in our town centres and parks, with many more issues I have not mentioned.

Another priority for me is increasing voter participation. Fewer than 40% of Aucklanders voted, only slightly up from 2019, so I am keen to see some big changes coming through local government reforms and changes to how our elections are done. The system has been pretty broken for some time; the postal system is also clearly being inadequate for voting in modern elections. Conversations during the campaign told me many people don’t realise how much local government affects our daily lives, often more than central government, so we have a large job ahead to address that.

Short term, we are dealing with other issues such as putting a lot of pressure on Auckland Transport, the bus companies and Fullers to recruit more drivers and ferry crew. We know this is an issue nationwide across all sectors but the lack of drivers and ferry crew affects our community dramatically and we deserve better.

I look forward to the term ahead working collaboratively with the mayor, councillors, local boards, IMSB, CCOs, staff but most importantly  with you, our community.

As always, feel free to contact me any time.

Thank you.