For all Wayne Brown’s faults, and there are many, you have got to be impressed with what he’s managed to do in eight months as Auckland’s Mayor.

He’s just managed to convince his council to sell 7% of Auckland Airport’s shares, this is out of the 18% the council held, when half of the council did not want to do this at all.

This from the guy we are told is aggressive, grumpy, rude, is apparently not a team player, he just managed to pull this off through compromise.

He was the one who compromised; went from 18% down to 7%, and that actually is pretty impressive.

Even before he managed to get this, there was no way that we were sure that this vote was going to pass today, even before we got to this point, I would’ve said that he was already winning.

Because for the first time in a really long time, somebody —being Wayne Brown— got us interested in what was going on in Auckland Council’s spending.

When was the last time there was this much attention and interest in the books of the biggest city in the councils? 

When was the last time you even knew what the upcoming dividend payment from Auckland Airport to Auckland Council was going to be? 

When was the last time you even knew the name of your local councillor?   

We should know this stuff.  

We should be interested in how our money’s been spent, because it’s badly handled for years. 

Auckland didn't get to 12 billion dollars worth of debt because the spending was careful, it got there because council after council spent more than they had coming in.

For the first time in ages we are interested, because of Wayne Brown.

Because of how aggressive, and grouchy, and frankly bold he’s been in trying to make cuts in this budget, he's created a soap opera and got us tuning in to see who wins. 

If I had to pick a winner in the end... I think it’s going to be him. 

Because I think it’s a bit of shock to some people to see how bad the council finances are, and how determined some councillors are to not run this thing properly. 

They are refusing to make any cuts, they're refusing to sell an asset to cut interest costs, and instead their solution is to add on more debt, when we already have 12 billion dollars worth of debt and have had a warning from ratings agencies not to keep adding.

If they get their way and push our rates up higher than inflation I would not be surprised if they come under public pressure from grumpy homeowners and renters who end up paying more. 

Which means next budget might be a little tougher for them.

Because remember, his term is not one year and one budget, it’s three years and three budgets.

They've got square off twice more while Wayne “I'm cutting costs” Brown is mayor.

So I think even if they win this time, Wayne Brown might win in the end; just because we’re all watching now like we never have before.