Colourful 2degrees founder lays out mayoral manifesto

Flamboyant 2degrees co-founder Tex Edwards may take a tilt at Auckland’s mayoralty and has texted NBR to say he will talk about it later in the week.

Mr Edwards, who is sailing off the coast of Thailand, says he is keen to end “monopoly club politics.”

He is the second possible candidate to raise his hand this week over a mayoralty bid. Xero New Zealand managing director Victoria Crone is also mulling over a tilt at the job held by Len Brown for the past two terms. 

Mr Edwards, now a 2% shareholder in 2degrees, has already laid out a manifesto for what a new super city mayor will need to do when in office – everything from apps for ratepayers to enhancing the image of the rich.  

His three page manifesto was tucked into the appendices of his submission to the MBIE discussion paper on regulating communications for the future (see Raw Data below).

Apart from extensive plans he would put in place for technology upgrades if he was elected mayor, including delivering an app to all ratepayers to help with rates payments, rubbish collection, sewerage and water problems, Mr Edwards wants to set up a council office in Brussels specifically to benchmark Auckland city operating metrics with that of EU best practise.

The former property developer would also encourage and pay for all Auckland councillors to visit an international city annually to review and benchmark costs for a particular area of ratepayers’ service delivery.

His other plans include a seawater swimming pool in downtown Auckland so workers can have a lunchtime swim; speeding up Auckland traffic flows by 5% through the use of real time smartphone apps monitoring congestion; suing VW for the air pollution damage it has done to Auckland; moving the “industrial eyesore, polluting, noisy, congestion-creating Ports of Auckland out of the city”; and deliver a 15 year plan to move Eden Park to the waterfront.  

Clipping Auckland Airport’s wings
Mr Edwards has a particular beef with Auckland International Airport, saying any new mayor needs to fix up the monopolistic mess to stimulate more job growth from high value tourism and raise benefits accruing to small tourism business.

He says the council should buy back 30% of the airport for ratepayers (Aucklanders spend $1m a week parking at the airport). “Monopoly rents are extracted from small business owners and taxi drivers at the airport.  

“A new mayor should argue with the Commerce Commission for better analysis of this business, encourage domestic flight cost benchmarking with EU cities and lower domestic air fares by having lower landing charges.”

Let them eat cookies
If he were mayor, Mr Edwards says he would live in a decile one suburb to better understand the needs of the minimum wage community.

He would also look at breaking up some of the construction products monopolies that gouge Auckland ratepayers for basic building materials and consider abandoning support for BRANZ, which looks like it is controlled by Fletcher Building.

To make sure building costs are kept down, he would hire global consultancies, such as McKinsey, BCG,  Accenture or similar to review why construction costs in Auckland are so high and benchmark construction pricing against world best practices.

Mr Edwards’ submission also states he believes the city discriminates against the rich and wants to put a stop to it by, among other things:

• Having the world’s best private jet facilities in Auckland with the world’s fastest transit from Netjet to limo times;

• A car delivery jet access system so middle eastern kids can land their planes and have their McLarens, Bugattis and Ferraris delivered to the racetrack immediately (within 10 minutes);

• Work with New Zealand private car racetrack operators and industry tradespeople to cater for the northern hemisphere automotive aspirations of EMEA residents; and

• Deliver a specific classic car transit lounge at the Auckland private jet centre to ensure the city has world’s best classic car location rally centre to help in capturing high value tourists and delivering skilled jobs to tradespeople.

And just so MBIE staff wouldn’t get hungry reading his submission and possibly pondering what a good mayor needs to do for Auckland, Mr Edwards included his mum’s chocolate chip cookie recipe. Food for thought.

RAW DATA: See Tex Edwards' submission here

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