Desley Simpson

Auckland Council's new deputy mayor Desley Simpson is not giving her full public backing to Mayor Wayne Brown's programme to "Fix Auckland".

"I will always have my own views and the mayor will be very clear about what they are. "I'm not running a detective story. As chair of the finance committee under Phil Goff, the three-term councillor won high praise for steering councillors through the Covid-impacted Emergency Budget containing a $900 million hole. Brown said his first three weeks as mayor had been "interesting" and when pushed to elaborate said it had been "very interesting". "I'm very aware of some of his key points he stood on. Asked if she would show the same loyalty to Brown as former deputy mayor Bill Cashmore showed to former Mayor Phil Goff, Simpson said she had huge admiration for Cashmore "but we are very different people".