Michael Lee is a New Zealand local government politician. He has been the Councillor for Waitematā and Gulf on

Auckland Council Auckland Council () is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that also has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is a unitary authority, according to t ...

since October 2022, an office he previously held from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the

Auckland Regional Council The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The ARC ...

from 1992 to 2010 and was its final chair from 2004 to 2010.

Political career

Auckland Regional Council

Lee was first elected to the

as an

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

candidate in a by-election in 1992. He was re-elected as a councillor at every election thereafter until the regional council's dissolution in 2010. 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 succeeded in opposing the privatisation of Ports of Auckland. He wrote his MSc thesis on such matters as land titles on

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2, Before becoming chair of the council, Lee was at times called a 'maverick' for opposing its more conservative members. One of his key projects in the 2000s was successfully pushing forward the Auckland railway electrification, electrification of Auckland's rail network, succeeded by his support for the construction of the

City Rail Link The City Rail Link (CRL) is a rail project currently under construction in Auckland, New Zealand. The project consists of a double-track rail tunnel underneath Auckland's city centre, between Britomart and Maungawhau (Mount Eden) railway st ...

tunnel to increase the capacity of the rail system, both projects often against strong opposition from national government. Lee was also instrumental in a campaign that resulted in the reopening of the

Onehunga Branch The Onehunga Branch railway line is a section of the Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand. It was constructed by the Auckland Province, Auckland Provincial Government and opened from Penrose Train Station, Penrose to Onehunga Train Station ...

rail line to passenger traffic, allowing services to begin on the Onehunga Line in 2010. While on the regional council, Lee contested election to Parliament in in the as an Alliance Party candidate and came second after

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Lockwood Smith Sir Alexander Lockwood Smith (born 13 November 1948) is a New Zealand politician and diplomat who was High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2017 and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013. Sm ...

Auckland Council

With the amalgamation of the Regional Council into the

in 2010, Lee was elected in the

Waitematā and Gulf ward Waitematā and Gulf Ward is an Auckland Council ward which elects one councillor and covers the Great Barrier, Waiheke, and Waitematā Local Boards. The current councillor is Mike Lee. Demographics Waitematā and Gulf ward covers with as esti ...

. He served three terms as an independent, left-leaning councillor. He was chair of the transport committee from 2010 to 2016 and was additionally appointed as a director of the council's independent transport authority,

Auckland Transport Auckland Transport (AT) is the council-controlled organisation (CCO) of Auckland Council responsible for transport projects and services. It was established by section 38 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, and operates under ...

. He was 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 organisation Council-controlled organisations (CCOs) and council-controlled trading organisations in New Zealand are what were formerly known as ''local-authority trading enterprises'' (''LATEs''). Introduced under Sections 6 and 7 of the ''Local Government Ac ...

s (CCOs) to manage substantial parts of the council-owned assets and services at arm's length from actual council control. Lee was re-elected in the 2016 Auckland elections, despite a challenge from Bill Ralston. He intended to retire after two terms but changed his mind in June 2019, announcing he would contest the 2019 Auckland elections. By this time, the

City Vision City Vision is a centre-left coalition of two political parties, the New Zealand Labour Party and the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and community independents who contest Auckland Council (and previously Auckland City and Auckland Regiona ...

ticket, which had endorsed Lee in 2016 by not fielding a candidate, had selected

Pippa Coom Pippa Coom is a New Zealand politician, who is a former councillor on the Auckland Council and former chair of the Waitematā Local Board. Early life Previous to succeeding in her bid for a Local Board seat, she worked as a lawyer for Vector, ...

as its candidate in March 2019 on the understanding that Lee would not stand again. Lee finished second to Coom in the October 2019 election. Lee contested the 2022 Auckland Council elections in the Waitematā and Gulf ward against Coom. The centre-right political group

Communities and Residents Communities and Residents (C&R) is a Right-wing politics, right-leaning Local government, local body Ticket (election), ticket in Auckland, New Zealand. It was formed in 1938 as Citizens & Ratepayers, with a view to controlling the Auckland Cit ...

endorsed him by declining to stand a candidate. In what was considered one of the biggest upsets of the 2022 Auckland elections, Lee defeated Coom by a margin of 1161 votes and became the councillor for Waitematā and Gulf once again.

Private life

Lee was married to

Sandra Lee-Vercoe Sandra Rose Te Hakamatua Lee-Vercoe (born 8 August 1952) is a former New Zealand politician and diplomat. She served as deputy leader (and briefly leader) of the Alliance party and was later High Commissioner to Niue. Early life Lee was bor ...

. They separated in 1992. Lee completed an MSc thesis entitled ''New Zealand the 10,000 island archipelago'' at the

University of Auckland The University of Auckland (; Māori: ''Waipapa Taumata Rau'') is a public research university based in Auckland, New Zealand. The institution was established in 1883 as a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. Initially loc ...

in 1996 – it has not been published. He spent 12 years researching and writing ''Navigators & Naturalists: French Exploration of New Zealand and the South Seas (1769–1824)'', which was published in 2018.

References

External links

Mike Lee
(webpage of the former

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Mike Politicians from Auckland Auckland Councillors Living people Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians Auckland regional councillors Unsuccessful candidates in the 1996 New Zealand general election Year of birth missing (living people)