Waiheke Island ‘full of activists and crazies’ – former Auckland Council CEO Doug McKay’s microphone mistake

Vogue magazine calls it the “Hamptons of New Zealand”, tennis star Serena Williams announced their engagement from there and Bill Gates and Beyonce have been vacationing there, but Waiheke Island is full of “lunatics and activists” according to the former boss. Auckland Council.

Doug McKay, President of the Bank of New Zealand and Eden Park Trust, was about to make a presentation at the Auckland Council’s Finance and Performance meeting via Skype on Thursday morning when he made the mistake.

“Waiheke was a … place, when I ran the council and it’s full of activists and crazy people,” McKay said during Waiheke Health Trust presentations.

“And the other people who go there just leave for the weekend. You know, plug your potholes and go. These crazy people stay there.”

At this point, one of the Auckland councilors said, “I’d better tell him he’s online.”

Finance and Performance meeting chair Desley Simpson cautioned: “There are people with their microphones on who are saying things that they may not want to be recorded in public. Could you just check their microphones, please?”

“He’s scandalously ignorant,” a meeting participant told the Herald. “If that’s Doug McKay’s voice, and I think it is, you should apologize today.”

McKay was the inaugural CEO of the Auckland Council when the Super City was created in 2010. He is also an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit and is on the boards of the Bank of New Zealand, the National Bank of Australia, IAG Insurance and Genesis Energy.

He did not return calls from the Herald.

Waiheke property and local developer Shane Brealey was not impressed with McKay’s characterization of him and his neighbors.

“What an idiot,” Brealey said.

“There are always a handful of people in every community who like to protest change and I suppose Waiheke has some that make headlines more often than elsewhere.

“I suppose trying to categorize the island as those kinds of people is wrong. There are all walks of life here, but you can’t categorize Waihekians like him.”

Former Auckland Councilor and former Waiheke resident Mike Lee defended McKay saying he was “always respectful and helpful in dealing with Waiheke’s issues.”

“When I was at sea in the 1970s and 1980s, the sailors called it ‘Cadbury Island, full of fruit and nuts.’ We Waihekeans just ignore it,” Lee said.

“That was, of course, before the nouveau riche found the island. If Doug McKay was accidentally over their heads, courtesy requires that he be given the benefit of the doubt.”

Over the past two decades, Waiheke Island has increasingly attracted wealthy residents and vacation home owners.

In 2017, the American fashion magazine Vogue called Waiheke the “Hamptons of New Zealand” and celebrities like Bill Gates, Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Beyonce spent their vacations there.

Also in early 2017, Williams announced his engagement during a romantic trip with his fiancee Alexis Ohanian to the island while in Auckland for the ASB Classic.

Waiheke app developer Eric Hillman points out the 2000 and 2003 America’s Cup races, and the rich and famous who washed ashore in their expensive wake – they came to watch the race and stayed to buy the venue.

Entrepreneur Mike Hall said Waiheke’s new and old residents even have different names: Waihekians and Waihitians. The former are those who have resided 20 years or more; the latter, for less.