Forgot to post this stunning morning shot from earlier. 😍

It was great to have my nephew Eli at the inauguration, he’s such a kind and intelligent little guy and was so proud to be there too. Love this pic. 🥹

Aotearoa: disaster occurs --> local marae opens its doors to the victims. Every. Single. Time.

Outrageously stunning night at the Gala opening of NZ Sculpture OnShore. The art is amazing! 8 - 23 November It’s New Zealand’s largest sculpture exhibition & an extraordinary celebration of art in our very own Operetu Fort Takapuna, Devonport, Auckland. Tickets and info: nzsculptureonshore.co.nz

Walked across the city centre, to a panel event at the Northern Club today. It was so nice to see so many people out in the sun or chilling under trees (including many of our recently planed ones) definitely feels like summer!! 👏🏻😍

Love how National proudly opposed the Treaty Principles Bill, and wore it like a badge of honour. Then basically rolled it out anyways. They’re dismantling and removing anything that honours the treaty, and undermining Māori. Without consultation too like yesterday. Depressing.

Bad 24hrs for vehicle fires in Auckland, one of our EV buses & two petrol cars including an expensive Lamborghini. Thankfully all three were put out quickly by very awesome FENZ fire fighters & reportedly no one was hurt which is great news. Update on bus & bus services below.

Summer came to the Shore a month early. Theo didn’t want to wait either. Straight in the water. Day for it. 😎⛱️🌺

Awesome night declaring our love and dedication to our city & our people once again. So good to have my sister Sophie and nephew there, as well many other great people. Congrats to Mayor Brown, Deputy Mayor Simpson & my 18 councillor colleagues. Closing the door on a massive 3 years & into another.

Read it ... goodness that was excellent from @richardhills.bsky.social. Just brilliant comms from him: factual, intelligent, empathetic, and compassion.

As soon as I saw the headline, I immediately knew which counciller leaped to the defence of EVs. Well done @richardhills.bsky.social, for standing up against the misinformation. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Kei runga noa atu koutou - Congratulations to the Kaipātiki Local Board all sworn in for the 2025-2028 term. Also massive congrats to new Chair Danielle Grant, and to Deputy for the first half of the term Melanie Kenrick and for the second half Paula Gillon. Excited to work with them all.

CompassNZ/David Seymour/ACT will leave this legacy to our kids and NZ. "It doesn't feel like they are made with love, it feels like they are made with hate," says one high school student about the government's revamped school lunches scheme, run by the School Lunch Collective. #nzpol

Took this thread and made it a post, with links - open.substack.com/pub/drbex/p/...

This government enshittifies everything #nzpol #nzed #supportTeachers 'Ironically, the 2023 curriculum was just what we needed. The 2024 version was almost as good. This 2025 curriculum seems to have been written by an offshore consultant who knows little about the context of Aotearoa New Zealand.'

So the Prime Ministers new attack on teachers is their 12 weeks of school holidays which we all know many teachers work through. Regardless. NZ Parliament has 20+ weeks of recess each year including a far longer summer break than most professions including teaching!!!

“The North Shore will never elect someone like you” - and other, far harsher comments stick in the back of my mind from the first time I ran. That time, I won by 128 votes. So, I apologise for one last celebratory post, but my colleague, Cr Shane Henderson, crunched the final numbers and…

Threatening doctors, nurses and medical professionals just doesn’t seem like a smart move or something that leads to a solution. Health minister needs to rethink his approach, the public are statistically very much on side with health professionals and very much not politicians.

In my opinion, this is nothing more than political theatre designed to pre-emptively sow doubt about an election result that a majority of the incumbent council do not like ... it is legally meaningless and asks for action that is not available.

Here comes more of the mid town investment now CRL is nearly complete. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This is really great news. City Vision (Labour, Greens & independents) has flipped two local boards. This is a win for progressive policies. Communities want climate action, street improvements, safe speeds and bike lanes

Thanks to the North Shore for having me back as your councillor. I’m proud to be the highest polling councillor on the Shore again and with the highest vote tally of any councillor in Auckland this time around. Please read my long post here: www.facebook.com/share/176XZv...

STAY in line if you’re special voting, if you get in line before 12 noon, the elections team need to let you vote. Every other box will be sealed shut at 12. So you’ve got 20 minutes to get to a library or Woolworths or Warehouse to drop your vote in.

A massive thanks to you all for the support and engagement this term. Also please go and vote by 12 noon tomorrow. Drop your votes to a Woolworths or Library (don’t post it). No papers? Enrol & special vote at the locations at the bottom of this link. voteauckland.co.nz/en/informati...

Done. Good luck!

Wellington idiots are all ‘We should cancel the Golden Mike’ regeneration, but now I’m in Bilbao, and the city is thriving with narrowed roads and pavements twice as wide as the road on each side.

Cleared out my office after a massive 3 years. The busiest 3 of my life, some tough times & lots of successes too. A lot of it spent working in this building. I hope everyone’s getting their votes back so I can get back to the office on Monday to continue the hard work for our community & our city.

It is completely unconscionable to require job losses for the economy to function (supposedly) and then to blame them for their own unemployment that they DID NOT CHOOSE.

There are at least 3x the number of people in those three buses than in the cars you can see on the motorway this morning. This is why I fight for more public transport, more dedicated bus lanes, trains, ferries and hopefully one day light rail, even to the shore! It’s more efficient for everyone.

Unemployment has increased by 50,000 since he’s been Prime Minister. That’s 50,000 families affected. Luxon is just giving up his responsibility as Prime Minister for his citizens - to look tough against people who are trying their best. Where are the jobs?

Since the election, there are 37,243 fewer 15-19 year olds in filled jobs. The jobs market for young people is as bad - if not worse - than the GFC. So adding 6% to the cost of tuition fees and halving apprenticeship boost support makes life even harder. Brilliant work National.

This creates frankly bonkers outcomes. If one parent works an hour less a week, their child gets $13,942. In fact, one parent can work 11 hours less a week and the household is still better off. Secondary benefits (like Accommodation Supplement) are likely to stretch that gap even further

#nzpol The government has announced that 18/19 year olds, who live in a household where the parents earn $65,529 or more, can't claim jobseekers support. If both parents work 27 hours on the minimum wage - $634 a week - they will be expected to now financially support their adult offspring. A 🧵

Some quotes from New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon: • “The world doesn’t owe you a living” • “I'm wealthy, I'm ‒ you know ‒ sorted.” • “just make a marmite sandwich” • “I don’t care.” (said multiple times since becoming PM) Guy is a stone cold psycho.

Great to be court side today at the finals of the North Harbour International 2025 at Badminton North Harbour. Such an awesome event over the last few days. Nice catching up with BNH Chief Executive Glenn Cox, club sponsor and well known local Martin Cooper and Danielle Grant & others.

I'm feeling very accomplished today - I supported our 18.5yo with her first ever vote. We have three envelopes ready to go 👍 I initially got the usual 'aw mum...', I said I'd explain it in 120secs or less, done ✔️ 😂

Ten days to drop your votes back to a library or a Woolworths! (7 days for a post box). Nice chatting to Birkenhead residents getting on the ferry on this beautiful morning. Look I know voting isn’t always the sexiest thing to, but it’s super important.

saw this from @richardhills.bsky.social on the facebook, very cool improvement to Auckland's bus infrastructure. more charging infra means more electric buses! #nzpol www.facebook.com/share/p/1BMJ...

Safeguarding our coast & preparing for climate change - I’ve loved leading this work with our talented coastal team. We’ve confirmed 18 shoreline adaptation plans covering nearly all 3,200km of coastline around Tāmaki Makaurau. See more here: ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/media-centre...

We want both states to have peace and security… well apart from the one state which we today confirmed we are not sure when we want to or if we want to recognise. But both states… I mean this is incoherent.

In a race to stand for nothing, we are increasingly heading for first place.

Chairing 8 hours today & the 20 workshops & meetings before this has been only part of the mammoth task to get this replacement over the line today. Big news. Our release ourauckland.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/news/2025/09... Spinoff live blog thespinoff.co.nz/politics/24-...

Banger speech from @richardhills.bsky.social Now onto amendmnets. First up from Desley Simpson and Andy Baker Simpson - Amendment on if 10-15 stories around train stations are required to have height in relation to boundary controls.

Hills - govt did not have to give us a choice. We have this choice! PC120 allows young people to have a choice in where they can live Density in Northcote - infra followed - affordable housing allows some to move in. If we dont do more, will Hills 3 yr old son have that opport?

Hills - decide more people live where infra is and transport route. 'WE DO NOT GET TO CHOOSE TO THROW THIS OUT' Government has thumb over pen etc for laws. RMA changes make zoning simplier. Hills this allows us to show leadership, and we dont have to wait to address flood risk.

Hills - this addresses concerns on areas where density was going to go with MDRS Also saying this doesn't change viewshafts, despite Minister Bishop saying in speeches. Hills - we are probs only council who will get out of MDRS which put housing everyhwere

Hills basically going through point by point on all the questions concerns brought up by councillors and Houkura members in question time. Hills says some areas might even be too downzoned and could get submissions saying not as much density

Hills - PC120 provides MORE protection for heritage and special character outside of walkable catchments. Also PC120 downzones at risk areas for flooding to 2 stories. Hills going over ALL the places around Auckland where its being downzoned not the MDRS is not applying.

Hills - Wrote to new govt, and took until this year for govt to understand need changes. Wanted it in May/June to do pre notification consutlation Also, PC120 puts intensification where transport and water infra is.

Richard Hills speaking - talking flooding and massive damage in 2023. 6 Days after, wrote for urgent changes to PC78, to enable dealing with hazard risk 971 days post floods to even do something It was urgent the days following, but its taken this long to be able to do something