Succeeded by Position abolished Name Mike Lee Preceded by Position created Role New Zealand politician | Nationality New Zealand Political party City Vision Website Mike Lee's blog | |
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Other political
affiliations Alliance Party (formerly) | ||
Michael (Mike) Lee is a councillor on the Auckland Council and the former chairman of the Auckland Regional Council, both in Auckland, New Zealand. He chairs the transport committee of Auckland Council, and sits on the board of Auckland Transport.
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Political career
Lee was first elected to the Auckland Regional Council in a by-election in 1992 and was elected chairman in 2004.
He held the position of parks chairman (the council managed a number of regional parks), and oversaw the acquisition of substantial further parkland by the council during his time. He wrote his thesis on such matters as land titles on Hauraki Gulf islands.
He counts helping to stop the privatisation of Ports of Auckland as one of his major early influences at the Regional Council.
Before becoming chair of the council, Lee was at times called a 'maverick' for opposing its more conservative members.
He contested the Rodney electorate in the 1996 election as an Alliance Party candidate and came second after National's Lockwood Smith.
With the amalgamation of the Regional Council into the Auckland Council in 2010, he was elected in the Waitemata and Gulf ward as a councillor.
He was very critical of the form of the new council as created by the Fifth National Government (though he supported the creation of the council itself), and especially of the creation of large business-like council-controlled organisations (CCOs) to manage substantial parts of the council-owned assets and services at arm's length from actual council control.
One of his key projects in the 2000s was successfully pushing forward the electrification of Auckland's rail network, succeeded by his work on achieving a city centre rail tunnel to increase the capacity of the rail system, both projects often against strong opposition from national government.
Lee was re-elected in the 2016 Auckland elections, despite a challenge from Bill Ralston.
Private life
Lee was married to Sandra Lee-Vercoe. They separated in 1992.