Andrew Williams (New Zealand politician)

Local Government politics

Williams served as a city councillor between 2001–2004, and on a community board between 2004–2007.

In 2007 he won election as Mayor of North Shore City, New Zealand's fourth-largest city. North Shore City Council was abolished in October 2010, becoming part of the Auckland "Super City".

Williams was an outspoken critic of the "Super City" amalgamation process for Auckland instigated by the National-led government in its first term of 2008–2011, considering the proposed "Supercity" unnecessary and undemocratic. He called the political moves towards forced unification a railroaded process and a power grab.^[1] Personal relations with Auckland City's mayor John Banks reportedly turned sour, with Banks calling Williams "a lunatic" in a text message Banks accidentally sent to Williams, after Williams had accused Rodney Hide of misleading the Prime Minister on the amount of consultation with local authorities on the "Super City" proposal.^[2]

On 15 August 2008, Williams collapsed while attending a Devonport naval base function. While being treated by ambulance workers, Williams is said to have "lashed out" at those helping him. The ambulance staff filed an incident report, but did not recommend further action.^[3] Williams' wife Jane claims her husband was suffering from "Chinese lurgy" after an exhausting 10-day trip to Korea and China. She described the incident as an unconscious reaction of Williams as the medics treated him, and expressed regret that the media had been told of it even though it should have been covered by patient confidentiality.^[4]

Local newspapers were critical of Williams' first year in the Mayor's office, with one paper asking the question "Is the mayor mad?" and noting that his behaviour was described as "overbearing, controlling, heavy-handed". Williams defended himself as not having "a lot of patience for fence-sitters and procrastinators".^[5]

Andrew Williams has been involved in a number of incidents where his temper apparently flared up – such as during a meeting of a committee of the North Shore City Council, where he was asked to leave after referring to a councillor, Chris Darby, as a "smart-arse".^[6]

In 2010 Williams had been drinking red wine at a Takapuna bar. Six hours later he left the bar alone and headed down Hurstmere Road towards the offices of the North Shore City Council, where he had been mayor since 2007. On his way he stopped, pulled down his trousers and urinated on a tree outside the council offices. Williams then headed for the council underground carpark, collected his mayoral vehicle and drove home to Campbells Bay, a 6 km trip.^[7][8]

Regarding the then-proposed Super City, Williams instead called for retention of the local Councils as they existed as of 2009, with a stronger Auckland Regional Council that could allegedly be made more accountable by being made up of local authority councillors instead of being elected separately and being forced to "work in a silo", "with insufficient funding".^[1]

Williams was accused of making a number of "obnoxious and aggressive" late night text and email messages to other politicians, including Prime Minister John Key, and of leaving "abusive rants" on the answering machine of previous mayor George Wood.^[9] He later defended himself, saying that overwork, prescription drug-taking and sleeplessness after an accident some weeks before were partly to blame.^[10]

In July 2010, he announced that he would stand in the 2010 mayoral election for the new 'Supercity' and for the Albany ward on the new council.^[11] He was elected to neither, and retired as the final Mayor of North Shore City after a council meeting on the last day of the city's legal existence.

Member of Parliament (2011–2014)

He represented New Zealand First in the North Shore in the 2011 general election.^[12] Although New Zealand First won no electorate seats, Williams was elected as a list Member of Parliament as New Zealand First's 6.8% of the party vote entitled it to eight seats in Parliament.^[13] Williams himself only received around 900 votes.^[14]

In 2012, Williams voted, together with all of his fellow New Zealand First MPs, against the Marriage Amendment Bill, which aimed to permit same sex marriage in New Zealand.^[15]

In March 2014, it was reported that two employees of New Zealand First received compensation after complaining about the way they were treated by Williams.^[16]

On 26 August 2014, New Zealand First released their parliamentary list for the 2014 New Zealand general election. Williams was excluded, effectively ending his parliamentary career.^[17]