Mark is a partner in NZ's leading public relations company. He was Head of Group Marketing for a major bank, and previously owned the Metro Magazine Top 50 restaurant Prime Bistro.

He has been a director, trustee or supporter of many community organisations over 20 years including:
• Remuera Plunket,
• Neighbourhood Watch,
• Grammar Carlton Rugby.

As a Remuera resident with young children, he wants our parks and community facilities preserved and enhanced. As a business and property owner, he wants better planning consultation and less Council bureaucracy.

Mark brings significant commercial and community experience dealing with change at a time of major transition in Auckland. He is committed to:
• careful, accountable use of our rates to benefit our Ward
• enhancing town and community centres across Orakei
• improving transport links.

Please vote Doug Armstrong for Council and all our local Citizens and Ratepayers Orakei Board candidates.

Top 5 Issues

1. Keep rates affordable and maximise ratepayer benefit for our ward.
2. Improve transport around the Ward and into the city.
3. Enhance the Orakei basin, and our community sports fields.
4. Keep our beaches well maintained and continue to develop our parks
5. Work with our local businesses to enhance our town centres.
   
   
   
   Work as a strong, positive team to get greater benefit for our ward.

Personal Profile

Mark has more than 15 years experience in senior management and executive positions with prominent NZ companies. His key strengths are in customer relations improvement, strategy and services business enhancement and people engagement.  His most recent experiences have been in customer, marketing and new business leadership roles in the retail, financial services, insurance and electricity sectors. He also has significant government relations and public sector experience.

Mark has been involved with a large number of community and national groups as director/trustee/member/supporter. These include: Remuera Plunket, Neighbourhood Watch, Grammar Carlton Rugby, St Johns Ambulance, Youthline, the Life Education Trust amongst others. He is currently Deputy Chair/Treasurer of the Hobson branch of Citizens and Ratepayers and was active in last year’s AECT campaign.

He has travelled widely and is interested in contemporary art and literature, fitness, rugby, snow skiing, wine and in really making Auckland a super city.

Mark’s partner Wendy Lai is a partner at Deloitte in the consulting business, leading the strategy and operations practice. Their sons are Ahryn (7) and Reuben (4).

 

Where do I and the C&R team stand on the issues:

What are the three biggest issues facing Auckland? 

• Managing the transition to a single authority in a cost efficient and innovative manner ensuring core services are provided, efficiently and effectively.
• Keeping the pressure on the new Council to keep rates affordable
• Delivering on the promise of better, more effective local government for Auckland. Electing a strong team with people experienced in local government, community and business will greatly help.

What are the three main issues in your local board/ward boundary that you would like the new council to prioritise? 

• Keep rates affordable, and increase the amount of the Orakei rates take being invested in our ward
• Make it easier to get around Orakei. Address the bus lane issues and cycle/bus/car issues on Tamaki Drive
• Maintain and enhance our beaches, parks, playgrounds, basin and sports fields

What are your thoughts on Maori and ethnic representation on the council?  

• C&R believes in representing the multicultural diversity of Auckland but not through separatism. We have a wide ethnic mix among our 120 candidates across the Auckland region. Within Orakei there is a significant growing number of residents born outside of New Zealand. The C&R Local Board team will work to represent all of them.

Why do you think the public should vote for you? 

• The C&R Local Board team are all local people with complementary skills. With backgrounds in local government, small and corporate business and the not-for-profit sector, the C&R team represents the diversity of the ward by way of gender, experience and age.
• We will work together from the start to deliver value and effectiveness for the Orakei ward. It will be much harder for independents, working by themselves to achieve this.

What is your policy on rates?  

• Whereas others talk about keeping rates lower, the Citizens & Ratepayers led Council has actually walked the talk and held rates below the rate of inflation. Although the initial costs of creating the new Auckland Council will make this challenging, we are committed to working towards maintaining this objective.

What is your policy on water and wastewater? 

• Water should be charged by how much we use. Wastewater should be charged in a way that gives the consumer a choice around fixed charging or volume.

What do you think are the biggest transport issues facing Auckland? 

• Around Auckland, the biggest issue is making public transport work better for those who want to use it.
• The biggest issue in Orakei is the time it takes to get in and out of the city and to move around the Ward. Tamaki drive, Kepa/Ngapipi  Rds,  Remuera and Shore Rds amongst others are too regularly log-jammed.
• A related issue is getting the fairest, shared use of our roads between cars, buses and cyclists.

 How do you think Auckland’s transport issues should be addressed? 

• The Auckland Transport Authority has to take ownership of this and we are determined to work with them to make it easier to get around the Orakei ward
• We will prepare a transport plan for Orakei, based on community feedback, to get Auckland Transport focussed on our issues,
• As a team we will work to ensure there is strong consultation with the Orakei Local Board to achieve results in our ward.

How would you ensure the new council’s actions would be held accountable and be transparent? 

• We will work closely with Orakei’s councillor, meet with them regularly  and hold them accountable around advancing our ward’s interests at Council
• As a Local Board,. we will publish a regular report to residents on Council’s progress, and produce an annual performance review of both ours and the Council’s activity.

How often do you think CCOs should hold public meetings?  

• Every meeting should be open to the public, with at least 2x public meetings per year . They should report to Local Boards at least once per year.

What will be the greatest difference you can make if elected to council or the local board?  

• A promise to listen, to communicate, consult, collaborate and to deliver the best possible  outcome for all in the  Orakei Ward.
• As a team, the C&R Local Board candidates are able to make commitments that they can stand behind – unlike independents who have limited ability to get things done.
• As local residents with strong links to all areas within the ward we will focus on delivering value and effectiveness.

What are the three main environmental issues facing Auckland and how would you address them if elected?  

• Air----continuing work on reductions in vehicle pollution
• Water----Cleaning up wastewater spillage into waterways and improving the quality and concentration of stormwater
• Climate Change---favour a monitoring and progressive adaptive approach with open dialogue