Latest news with #PhilMauger
Scoop
6 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
NEW POLL: The Best (And Worst) Big-City Mayors
Press Release: Taxpayers' Union For the first time since June 2024, Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger takes the top spot as the country's most popular metropolitan mayor, after a 19-point surge this quarter. Commenting on this, Taxpayers' Union spokesman James Ross said: "Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger backed rates capping, and in that same period surged 19 points to become the most popular big-city mayor. If that's not an endorsement of rates capping, I don't know what is." "Local body elections are less than three months away. Any candidates looking to boost their appeal might do well to follow Mayor Mauger's example by putting ratepayers' needs front-and-centre." "Mayor Brown remains steadily well-liked, no doubt thanks to the fourth-lowest rates hikes in the country over the last three years. And even Tory Whanau has seen a boost since announcing she'd step aside - all in all, everyone's a winner this poll." The latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll ranks New Zealand's three metro mayors by their net approval, and tracks their approval over time. The results are based on a series of monthly polls across New Zealand. Because the sample sizes for Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington are larger, trends are able to be deduced over time. The full results can be found at Using Scoop for work? Scoop is free for personal use, but you'll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features. Join Pro Individual Find out more
RNZ News
16-07-2025
- RNZ News
Christchurch Hospital workers sleeping in cars to try secure a car park, mayor says
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Christchurch Hospital workers are sleeping in their cars before work to try to secure a car park, mayor Phil Mauger says. Christchurch City Councillors have voted to consider making overnight car parks available at Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre when it opens in October and potentially providing free transport to and from the building and the hospital a few hundred metres away. Hospital workers had been pleading for better parking because of unaffordable fees at nearby car park buildings and staff safety concerns. Mauger told a council meeting on Wednesday that it was clear the problem had not gone away when he visited the hospital recently. "Some people, nurses and people who work at the hospital, still come to work at 4am in the morning and sleep in their car until it's time to get up. Just so they can get the car close to their place of their work," he said. Other staff had been parking further away but feared for their safety, he said. "A young lady I was talking to... she said I've got a scooter because I know it will go faster than the person chasing me. Now we don't need that," he said. Mauger said he understood existing hospital parking was not enough to account for the overlap between shifts and he wanted an urgent solution. "I want to have this going as soon as we've got the keys and we [open Parakiore]. I don't want it to get lost into the system, and it comes out at the middle of next year. We owe it to these people to look after them as best we can," he said. In May, a hospital staffer was assaulted on her way to work in the evening and a student midwife was attacked on the way to their car after leaving work at the hospital's birthing unit at night. The motion to investigate overnight Parakiore parking received unanimous support around the council table. Councillor Yani Johanson said it was "incredibly frustrating" that the situation had not been resolved by years of effort to make enough parking available. "When we started to do some of the roading changes around Oxford Terrace there was a suggestion that we actually as part of a hospital development do a land swap and actually get a purpose-built car parking building to support the hospital at the time, but people didn't want to go there," he said. "Then it was raised, when we were considering the plans for Metro Sports [Parakiore Recreation and Sports Centre] to put a multi-storey car park there and partnership with the hospital. The health board at the time, central government, for whatever reason rolled out so we didn't do that," he said. Staff were also unable to use a private parking building that opened near the hospital in 2023 because it was too expensive, he said. "I'm really supportive of us doing more. I feel that people's safety is really important," Johanson said. Councillor Kelly Barber also supported the motion but questioned why the onus fell on the council not the government to arrange staff parking. "I think it's madness that our council's having to get involved in something that really is probably an issue that government should have taken care of a long time ago," he said. "I mean, why would you build a house with no parking, if you know if there isn't great public transport? Why would you build a hospital and have inadequate parking for your staff and for the people that visit?"
Scoop
08-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Taxpayers' Union Applauds Christchurch Mayor Backing Rates Cap
TUESDAY 8 JULY 2025 The Taxpayers' Union is welcoming Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger's support for the campaign to cap annual council rates increases, and labelling him a 'ratepayer hero'. Taxpayers' Union, Investigation Coordinator, Rhys Hurley, said: 'Councils have been using ratepayers as a bottomless ATM. It's refreshing to see a mayor finally admit that the current model is broken and something needs to change.' 'Christchurch's rates have gone up nearly 25% over the past three years far outpacing inflation. Ratepayers aren't getting 25% more value. They're getting bloated budgets, pet projects, and everything else no one asked for.' "Mayor Mauger's suggestion of a 5% rates cap is a welcome step, but anything above inflation is still a pay cut for ratepayers." 'Councils won't make tough choices until they're made to. Rate Caps Now does exactly that.' "But at a time when LGNZ is planning a sneaky campaign to use ratepayer money to lobby against and undermine Simon Watts' proposal to cap rates, it's refreshing to see that the local government sector still has true leaders who stand on the side of fiscal prudence and affordable rates. A ratepayer hero in the Garden City."
RNZ News
08-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Christchurch Mayor backs proposal for government-capped rates rises
Phil Mauger envisages a rates cap of around 5 percent. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger is backing calls for the government to cap rates rises . Cabinet will consider options to control rate rises, including capping, later this year. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has complained of councils' wasteful spending, comparing local politicians to kids in a candy store. "Councils don't always do a great job of spending your money like you would spend it. There are wasteful projects - there is evidence of that," Willis told Morning Report on Monday. "We want councils focusing on the things people expect them to do, which is the rubbish, the roads, the pipes, the basics - and not all the fanciful projects." Mauger told RNZ he could not agree more. "Everyone campaigns 'ohh, we gotta stick to basics', right? And then the first thing some of us do is go away and not stick to basics," he said. "We need to be stronger around the council table to say what's basics. Now ... someone's basic might be someone else's must have ... but it's good to have rates caps. I feel it's good. I really do." Earlier this year, the Taxpayers' Union launched a campaign calling for rates to be capped at inflation levels. Mauger imagined a cap closer to 5 percent and said his council was "very close to what I'd call the rates cap". He conceded it would not be possible to cap rates at inflation. "If it's low as that we would struggle with that," Mauger said. "I think to get down to 2 percent, if the government put a rates cap at 2 percent on it, I think there's a lot of problems." Christchurch City Council had approved average rates increases of 6.4 percent, 9.9 percent and 6.6 percent this term, as a result average rates bills had climbed almost 25 percent in the city this triennium, while inflation had only risen about 8 percent during that time. Willis told Morning Report she expected push back from councils "because when you take candy away from kids in a candy store, they don't really like it. But at the same time, we are on the side of ratepayers". Asked if he was acting like a kid in a candy store, Mauger told RNZ: "No - when it's my own money, it is. But when you're spending other people's money, [rates caps] are good". "If we had money running out of our ears, you'd spend it on other stuff. We haven't got that at the moment," he said. He agreed with Willis that councils had engaged in wasteful spending, and when asked for an example he pointed to cycleway spending. "We've wasted money on how we have designed and built cycleways. Now I'm not against cycleways but we can build them one hell of a lot cheaper - a lot, lot cheaper," Mauger said. The council had budgeted $210.4 million for new cycleways, improvements, and cycleway and footpath renewals over the next decade in its long-term plan. However, that only accounted for 3.2 percent of its budgeted $6.5 billion in capital spending. With major projects, such as Christchurch's new stadium and new sports complex, almost complete, rates pressure would ease in the future. But Mauger said the council still needed to find other ways to cut its cloth. "What we've got to look at is our levels of service now," he said. "Everyone expects when they walk out the door, they expect the footpath to be half-good, they expect the gutter to be falling the right way, they expect the water to be not leaking out of the ground, the grass mowed and rubbish picked up - that's what they expect. "If we backed off and didn't mow the grass as often or didn't pick up the rubbish as often, that's how we could save some money. I can't say that's how you would, but that's how we can do it quicker and easier." Rates caps had been panned by Labour leader Chris Hipkins - who said it would make the problem worse not better - and Local Government New Zealand president and Selwyn District mayor Sam Broughton - who said capping rates could be "disastrous for communities". Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
30-06-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
New rules around alcohol sales adopted in Christchurch
Photo: File image Christchurch City Council has agreed to a new set of rules on how alcohol can be sold and supplied across the city. Mayor Phil Mauger and city councillors approved the Local Alcohol Policy (LAP), which will affect Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. It includes three main rules designed to address alcohol-related harm: All off-licence retailers must stop selling alcohol at 9pm daily, effective from October. This includes bottle stores and supermarkets. A freeze on new off-licences in high-deprivation communities, effective from August. Restricting new bottle stores from setting up near addiction treatment/rehabilitation centres, secondary schools and primary schools, the University of Canterbury and the Christchurch Bus Interchange effective from August. Mauger said the LAP is the result of months of research and consultation with the community, health professionals, retailers and hospitality, and "strikes a balance between their interests". "All through this process, we've consistently heard that the wider community wants a Local Alcohol Policy that's fair as well as effective," Mauger says. "Our residents always come first, and the main purpose of the Local Alcohol Policy is to address the harm caused by alcohol in our community. However, we want to do this while ensuring Christchurch remains a lively and thriving city. "The result is a Policy that focuses mainly on making alcohol less available at certain times and in certain areas, particularly for those considered more vulnerable, where easy access to alcohol can have a larger impact on the community." Councils in New Zealand can develop their own LAPs, which can set the number, location, and opening hours of licensed premises, such as bars, cafés and restaurants, supermarkets and bottle stores. These rules can apply across either the whole city and district or only in identified local areas. Once a LAP is in place, it must be reviewed within six years.
