'Hell of a mess he'll have to clean up' - John Tamihere defiant despite big defeat to Phil Goff in Auckland election

October 12, 2019

John Tamihere spoke after his big defeat to the incumbent Phil Goff.

John Tamihere has defiantly said Phil Goff has a "hell of a mess" to clean up after the incumbent's landslide win in the Auckland mayoral election today.

Mr Tamihere was greeted with a haka at his election event in Te Atatu, where he said he doesn’t have any ill-feelings towards his rival.

"It's not the result we wanted, but let's move on from that," he said to the crowd.

The incumbents in Wellington City and Hutt City are in trouble while John Tamihere suffered a heavy defeat in the Auckland election.

"I welcome him being the mayor, but what a hell of a mess he's going to have to clean up given his last three years."

Mr Tamihere jokingly blamed the defeat on his two campaign managers before questioning how his rival won.

“I don’t know anyone who’s been elected on a platform of putting rates up, petrol prices up and taxes up, in any nation other than this," he said.


“Aucklander’s have got three years to work out how good Mr Goff goes, get a load of this, I won’t be sitting idle either.”

When asked what he meant he said, “you’ll have to wait and see.”

Mr Tamihere told his supporters "we have a national election next year and we've awoken a monster". 

The now two-term mayor comprehensively beat his main rival John Tamihere.

“The commentariat hates a brown boy’s guts. For the first time in the political history of this country the National party and Labour Party came together against me, how do you beat the commentariat.. How do you beat the National party and the Labour Party.”

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