Aaron Hawkins (politician)

Hawkins was born in Invercargill but has lived in Dunedin since 2002 to study at the University of Otago.[2] He lives in Port Chalmers with his wife and son.[3][4]

In 2016, he was involved in a near-fatal car accident after skidding on black ice in Halswell near Christchurch. He had to be cut free from the car and suffered a fractured humerus. His wife and son had minor injuries.[5][4]

He does not drive and is known to hitchhike from his home in Port Chalmers.[6][7]

Hawkins is a vegetarian.[7]

Hawkins was the host of Radio One's breakfast show.[8]

Hawkins first stood for Council and Mayor in the 2010 local body election but was unsuccessful after ranking 13th with 3.22% of the vote.[9][10]

In 2013, he was elected to Dunedin City Council in the Central Ward as a representative of the Green Party. His campaign for the mayoralty was unsuccessful coming fourth with 7.5% of the vote.[11][12]

In 2015, he was part of a successful campaign to save, strengthen and restore Dunedin's courthouse building after it was deemed an earthquake risk.[13][14]

In 2016, he was re-elected to Council. He contested the mayoralty for a third time, but was not successful and came fifth with 7.7% of the vote.[15]

He stood for re-election to Council and for the mayoralty in 2019 as a representative of the Green Party.[16][17][18] He was successful in the mayoral poll and was the first official Green Party candidate to win a mayoralty.[8][19]

As of September 2019, he is the chair of council's community and culture committee, grants committee, refugee steering group and the Mayor's taskforce for housing.[2][20] He is also a member of the Dunedin Fringe Arts Trust board and the Blue Oyster Arts Trust board and the co-chair of Local Government New Zealand's young elected members committee.[8][21][22]

In 2019, he successfully led a motion asking Councillors to support the protection of Foulden Maar.[23][24]

On 12 October 2019, he was elected as Mayor of Dunedin.[1][25]

In May 2020, the Dunedin City Council approved a set of controversial measures designed to entice the public back into the CBD following the COVID-19 lockdown. The main street's speed limit was lowered from 30 km/h to 10 km/h, free parking was introduced and businesses were enabled to use footpaths for free. The measures were criticised by opponents as "ideological". Hawkins respond "This has been called part of a wider ideological drive, well of course it is. Everything is ideological... Every opinion expressed by every person in this room is a product of ideology. A product of your values, your knowledge and your perspectives and your opinions. That's what that means.".[26]