Councillor
Mike Lee
Waitematā and Gulf Ward councillor
Assumed office
28 October 2022
Preceded byPippa Coom
In office
31 October 2010 – 12 October 2019
Preceded byPosition created
Succeeded byPippa Coom
Chairman of the Auckland Regional Council
In office
2004 – 31 October 2010
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Personal details
NationalityNew Zealand
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations		Alliance Party, City Vision (formerly)
WebsiteMike Lee's blog

Michael Lee is a New Zealand local government politician. He has been the Councillor for Waitematā and Gulf on Auckland Council since October 2022, an office he previously held from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Auckland Regional Council from 1992 to 2010 and was its final Chair from 2004 to 2010.

Political career

Auckland Regional Council

Lee was first elected to the Auckland Regional Council as an Alliance candidate in a by-election in 1992.[1] He was re-elected as a councillor at every election thereafter until the regional council's dissolution in 2010.

He held the position of parks chairman (the council managed a number of regional parks),[2] and oversaw the acquisition of substantial further parkland by the council during his time.[3] He succeeded in opposing the privatisation of Ports of Auckland.[3] He wrote his MSc thesis on such matters as land titles on Hauraki Gulf islands.[4] In 2004 he was elected as chair of the regional council and held that position until 2010.[3] Before becoming chair of the council, Lee was at times called a 'maverick' for opposing its more conservative members.[2]

One of his key projects in the 2000s was successfully pushing forward the electrification of Auckland's rail network, succeeded by his support for the construction of the City Rail Link tunnel to increase the capacity of the rail system, both projects often against strong opposition from national government.[5] Lee was also instrumental in a campaign that resulted in the reopening of the Onehunga Branch rail line to passenger traffic, allowing services to begin on the Onehunga Line in 2010.[6]

While on the regional council, Lee contested election to Parliament in Rodney in the 1996 election as an Alliance Party candidate and came second after National's Lockwood Smith.[7]

Auckland Council

Auckland Council
Years Ward Affiliation
2010–2013 Waitematā and Gulf Independent
2013–2016 Waitematā and Gulf Independent
2016–2019 Waitematā and Gulf None
2022–present Waitematā and Gulf Auckland Independents

With the amalgamation of the Regional Council into the Auckland Council in 2010, Lee was elected in the Waitematā and Gulf ward.[8] He served three terms as an independent, left-leaning councillor. He was chair of the transport committee from 2010 to 2016 and was additionally appointed as a director of the council's independent transport authority, Auckland Transport.[9]

He was critical of the form of the new council as created by the Fifth National Government (though he supported the creation of the council itself), and especially of the creation of large business-like council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to manage substantial parts of the council-owned assets and services at arm's length from actual council control.[10]

Lee was re-elected in the 2016 Auckland elections, despite a challenge from Bill Ralston.[11] He intended to retire after two terms but changed his mind in June 2019, announcing he would contest the 2019 Auckland elections.[12] By this time, the City Vision ticket, which had endorsed Lee in 2016 by not fielding a candidate, had selected Pippa Coom as its candidate in March 2019 on the understanding that Lee would not stand again.[12][13] Lee finished second to Coom in the October 2019 election.[14]

Lee contested the 2022 Auckland Council elections in the Waitematā and Gulf ward against Coom. The centre-right political group Communities and Residents endorsed him by declining to stand a candidate.[15][16] In what was considered one of the biggest upsets of the 2022 Auckland elections, Lee defeated Coom by a margin of 1161 votes and became the councillor for Waitematā and Gulf once again.[17]

Private life

Lee was married to Sandra Lee-Vercoe. They separated in 1992.[18]

Lee completed an MSc thesis entitled New Zealand the 10,000 island archipelago at the University of Auckland in 1996 – it has not been published.[19] He spent 12 years researching and writing Navigators & Naturalists: French Exploration of New Zealand and the South Seas (1769–1824), which was published in 2018.[20]

References

  1. ↑ "Alliance scoops byelection vote". The New Zealand Herald. 20 February 1992. p. 1.
  2. 1 2 "Many strings pull future of historic city sanctuary". The New Zealand Herald. 10 August 2000. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "Cr Michael Lee Auckland Regional Council Chairman". Auckland Regional Council website. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  4. ↑ "Ask Phoebe: Tiny isle belongs to no one". The New Zealand Herald. 18 March 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2010.
  5. ↑ "Lee hits back at minister over city rail". The New Zealand Herald. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Dearnaley, Mathew (21 April 2010). "Work starts at new Onehunga rail station". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
  7. ↑ "Electorate Candidate and Party Votes Recorded at Each Polling Place – Rodney" (PDF). Retrieved 6 July 2013.
  8. ↑ Orsman, Bernard (12 March 2010). "First blood to left in boundary changes". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  9. ↑ Hewitson, Michele (4 December 2010). "Mike Lee". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  10. ↑ "Mike Lee: The Government is no longer listening". The New Zealand Herald. 15 March 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
  11. ↑ "Final Result" (PDF). Auckland Council. 13 October 2016. Archived from the original on 19 October 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  12. 1 2 "Veteran Auckland councillor Mike Lee's vote splitting decision to run again". Stuff.co.nz. 28 June 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  13. ↑ "City Vision selects a fresh face for Waitematā and Gulf". City Vision. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  14. ↑ "Mike Lee's career in local politics over: final results confirm Pippa Coom has won his seat". New Zealand Herald. 18 October 2019. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
  15. ↑ Niall, Todd (19 July 2022). "Auckland Council election: Political veteran Mike Lee attempts comeback". Stuff. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  16. ↑ "Political veterans eye up seats on Auckland Council". NZ Herald. Retrieved 6 September 2022.
  17. ↑ "Auckland Council's power shift". Newsroom. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  18. ↑ Hewitson, Michele (17 December 2005). "ARC chairman keeps the reindeer galloping". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  19. ↑ Cameron, Ewen (2007). "Rotoroa Island, inner Hauraki Gulf, trip report" (PDF). Auckland Botanical Society Journal. 62: 130, 135. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  20. ↑ Lee, Michael (2018). Navigators & Naturalists: French Exploration of New Zealand and the South Seas (1769–1824). Auckland, New Zealand: David Bateman. ISBN 978-1-86953-965-8.
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