Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. Photo: MARIKA KHABAZI / RNZ
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and the city's 19 councillors were sworn into office on Friday evening.
The colourful inauguration ceremony held at the Auckland Town Hall saw councillors introduced to the Earth, Wind, and Fire hit song 'September'.
In his inauguration speech, Mayor Brown, who won the mayoralty by more than 100,000 votes - or, as he described it, "four-and-a-half full stadiums at Eden Park", shared his plans for the city.
"It is a great honour and privilege to be here at this rather long and weirdly organised event, but it's an important one, so settle in, as this is my chance to outline the next three years."
He said he wanted to take transport in Auckland from "appalling to quite good".
He was also critical of the government, saying it needed to start treating Auckland with respect and recognise its strategic importance.
He said one of his priorities would be "getting a city deal across the line".
"We are a third of New Zealand. Given the size and scope of Auckland, they [the government] should be returning more our way.
"This is an opportunity for the government to start treating us as such, as a major party, with the respect it is due.
"I welcome discussions to detail exactly what this looks like in a city deal and I look forward to signing this with the Prime Minister, as my counterpart."
Brown has been pushing the government to introduce a bed-night levy in the city, which it has so far shut down.
In his speech, the mayor conceded he was not prepared for the weather events that wreaked havoc on the city in 2023.
"The city wasn't prepared, Auckland Emergency Management wasn't prepared, weather forecasters weren't prepared, council wasn't prepared... I wasn't prepared. The pipes and stormwater system of Auckland weren't prepared, the media weren't prepared, but as usual, they blamed everybody else.
"We weathered the storm in more ways than one and we got on with it. Three years on, we've made improvements.
"Weather forecasters have now improved so much that they have predicted 11 of the last three downpours."
Following the swearing in and the mayor's speech, there were performances by Samoan performance group, Tatau Manaia, Rangitoto College's Chinese Traditional Dance Club, and vocalist Temaleti Tupou, who sang the national anthem.
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