WAYNE'S WORLD

Businessman and former Far North mayor Wayne “The Fixer” Brown has declared war on waste as he campaigns for the Auckland mayoralty.

- MICHELE HEWITSON

Wayne Brown: "I'm disappointed with Auckland's performance. It should be better. It's our nicest city."

Here's a story that tells you everything you need to know about Wayne Brown, the former Far North mayor and now Auckland mayoral candidate. He once went on “holiday" to Rarotonga and ended up writing a book. It's called The Five Minute MBA According to Wayne Brown. It is dedicated to the progress of all the bright start-ups and to the removal of all drongos from power”. He said he could send me a copy translated into Portuguese, if I liked. The book was a big seller in Brazil. He still gets royalties.

He's a jammy geezer. He's good at everything. Except having a holiday.

He owns many commercial properties, including a corrections centre in Flaxmere and a pub in the Auckland suburb of Ōtāhuhu, and at least one supermarket. I lost count of what he owns. He is pretty rich, probably, but doesn't live particularly “ostentatiously".

When I ask how much money he's got, he says he's got 100 bucks in his pocket and beyond that he doesn't know because it's not important. He settles for “enough”. He has done "better than expected and certainly better than my parents expected".

He is a construction engineer by trade and his campaign slogan is "The Fixer”. It's what he does, he says. He goes into muddles and fixes them, then moves on to the next muddle.