‘I dropped the ball’: Wayne Brown concedes his communication was too slow | Feb 3 2023

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has conceded he “dropped the ball” during last Friday’s major flooding event.

The state of emergency in the super city has today been extended for a further seven days, though Brown said he expects it will be lifted early.

After a week of defensiveness over his handling of the initial declaration, Brown has acknowledged he made mistakes and was “too slow to be seen”, adding that “the communications weren’t fast enough, including mine”.

He said he was sorry and the priority now was ensuring Aucklanders were kept safe, well-informed and well-supported over the Waitangi long weekend.

The mayor was advised at 9am today by Civil Defence to extend the state of local emergency. The declaration was signed at 11.30am. “One sign of the fantastic co-operation is that the emergency powers, which I approved on Friday night immediately when advised, have barely needed to be used,” said Brown.

The community response to the recent bad weather had been “magnificent”, the mayor added.