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Mike Lee (New Zealand politician)

Michael Lee is a New Zealand local government politician. He has been the Councillor for Waitematā and Gulf on Auckland Council since October 2022, an office he previously held from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the Auckland Regional Council from 1992 to 2010 and was its final Chair from 2004 to 2010.

Mike Lee

Position created

Pippa Coom

Position abolished

New Zealand

Independent

Political career[edit]

Auckland Regional Council[edit]

Lee was first elected to the Auckland Regional Council as an Alliance candidate in a by-election in 1992.[1] 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),[2] and oversaw the acquisition of substantial further parkland by the council during his time.[3] He succeeded in opposing the privatisation of Ports of Auckland.[3] He wrote his MSc thesis on such matters as land titles on Hauraki Gulf islands.[4] In 2004 he was elected as chair of the regional council and held that position until 2010.[3] Before becoming chair of the council, Lee was at times called a 'maverick' for opposing its more conservative members.[2]


One of his key projects in the 2000s was successfully pushing forward the electrification of Auckland's rail network, succeeded by his support for the construction of the City Rail Link tunnel to increase the capacity of the rail system, both projects often against strong opposition from national government.[5] Lee was also instrumental in a campaign that resulted in the reopening of the Onehunga Branch rail line to passenger traffic, allowing services to begin on the Onehunga Line in 2010.[6]


While on the regional council, Lee contested election to Parliament in Rodney in the 1996 election as an Alliance Party candidate and came second after National's Lockwood Smith.[7]

Private life[edit]

Lee was married to Sandra Lee-Vercoe. They separated in 1992.[18]


Lee completed an MSc thesis entitled New Zealand the 10,000 island archipelago at the University of Auckland in 1996 – it has not been published.[19] 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.[20]

(webpage of the former Auckland Regional Council)

Mike Lee