Auckland Mayor Len Brown says the council's overseas postings are all about economic growth and jobs in the city, and despite criticism, there will be more.
It was revealed at the weekend that Auckland Council has sent one of its staff to London at a cost of $230,000 a year, after his English-born wife became homesick. Another of its staff was sent to San Francisco.
"It's all about jobs for us – investment in our city, visitors to our city and country, and economic jobs and benefits," Mr Brown said on Firstline this morning.
Mr Brown did not know about the London posting before it happened, but with 8500 people employed by the council, he can't be expected to know everything.
"The person directly responsible for this is our chief executive officer, and then the chief executive officers like Brett O'Riley for our council companies like ATEED [Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development]. So of course I would not know about everyone who's employed and where they're employed, but what I will say is I totally back Brett and his leadership."
Asked if the position in London would have been created had the employee's wife been from a country with fewer economic ties to New Zealand – such as Latvia – Mr Brown said he was "not going to get into the details of it".
"I'm sure there's a lot more to the story than that in terms of their personal situation. Brett required someone on behalf of our organisation to reach into London and to assist companies investing in London, but in particular companies out of London and England investing in Auckland."
The London contract ends in September, and Mr Brown says he expects to be told about what tangible benefits it has brought to Auckland.
The posting in San Francisco he says is to attract IT talent and investment to Auckland, and is largely being paid for by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Despite criticism from his own councillors and right-wing lobby group the Taxpayers' Union, Mr Brown says the council is looking at similar postings in Shanghai and Guangzhou.
"We're looking to build to $30 billion worth of trade between ourselves and China, and those outreaches are critical to how we do that."
Left-wing councillor Cathy Casey says the postings are a "major scandal" considering the council is supposed to be cutting its spending, while her right-wing colleague Dick Quax has called it an "outrage".
3 News
source: newshub archive
