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• Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has allowed major events like the Fifa Women’s World Cup to remain with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited.
• Brown’s council-controlled organisation reform package is expected to be approved by councillors on Thursday.
• The mayor is also proposing a bed tax of 2.5% to 3% to fund a $7 million shortfall for major events.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has changed heart and proposed allowing major events like the Fifa Women’s World Cup and SailGP to stay outside a radical shake-up of council bodies.

Councillors are expected to approve the mayor’s council-controlled organisation (CCO) reform package on Thursday, less than a week after Transport Minister Simeon Brown gave the green light to “surgically change” Auckland Transport.

Under the package, AT will be stripped of its policy and strategy functions, the council’s urban generation body Eke Panuku Auckland, will be abolished, and Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU) will lose its economic development function.

The mayor, however, has decided that TAU should keep its destination marketing and major events functions after an earlier proposal to bring them in-house to the council.

A spokesman for Brown said in consultation with the tourism sector, the mayor decided that keeping destination marketing and major events with TAU was consistent with a commercially funded model.

The mayor believes ratepayers should not be subsidising activities with a significant private benefit, and TAU has been useful in attracting a small amount of private sector funding and partnerships, the spokesman said.

Mayor Wayne Brown at Eden Park. The Fifa Women's World Cup, meanwhile, also played games at Eden Park. Photo / Alex Burton

In background documents on the mayor’s well-signalled CCO reforms, TAU chief executive Nick Hill said that bringing destination and major events into the council was out of step with comparable cities.

“Cities who have successfully used their visitor economies to drive vibrancy, regional and city benefits like Melbourne and Brisbane have pioneered stand-alone agency models,” he said.

Today, a Tātaki Auckland Unlimited spokesperson did not wish to comment on the proposed change ahead of Thursday’s vote.

The mayor is also looking at a potential name change for TAU so Aucklanders can better understand what the CCO delivers.

When TAU was set up in 2020 from the merger of two CCOs - Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA), and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (Ateed) - the name Tātaki Auckland Unlimited was chosen to convey “energy, vitality, action and creativity”. Another option, “Auckland Live” did not fit the bill.

The mayor is keeping an open mind on a possible name change.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown (left) and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown (right) announced a major shake-up to the functions of Auckland Transport. Photo / ��һ�ǿ�����

With events split between TAU and the council, Brown wants most events and activities under TAU, but thought be given to local events usually organised and delivered by local boards and their communities.

The mayor is also pushing for a bed tax of between 2.5% and 3% to fund a $7 million shortfall for major events, which, he said happens in most world-class cities and “is a no-brainer”.

“The mayor’s expectation is that Tātaki and the sector will work with the Government to progress a bed night visitor levy as soon as possible,” the spokesman said today.

In his mayoral proposal for next year’s budget, Brown said after a decade of tinkering with the CCOs through reviews “we are still contending with issues of public trust and confidence with the Auckland Council Group”.

“It is clear that if we want to address the challenges embedded within the CCO model, we must change the system itself. This means structural reform and cultural change,” he said.

Wayne Brown said the reform package does not require public consultation, which would delay implementation and create further uncertainty for staff.

The CCO reforms would leave Auckland Transport running the trains, buses and ferries, and little else. Photo / Greg Bowker

The magnitude and complexity of the reforms have led councillors to question how the proposed reforms would be implemented, whether management is up to the task, and want greater detail of what the new set-up would look like.

Wayne Brown said if the reform package is approved, council chief executive Phil Wilson will provide regular updates, including a more detailed timeline, where things will sit in the council group, service continuity, and risk management.

The Eke Panuku and TAU reforms are expected to come into effect from July next year, but the need to repeal legislation for the AT reforms means the changes will not occur before mid-2026.