AM host Ryan Bridge has hit out at Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, saying she is "worse than Wayne Brown" for refusing to front to media to answer questions as a publicly elected official.
Whanau has told council staff not to remove a mural in the city's Waitangi Park which called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
She wrote on Instagram that it was important the "confronting" mural should stay.
"As the Creative Capital of Aotearoa, I do not agree with the approach to remove art from dedicated spaces that speaks to the hard, complex and at times abhorrent issues of the day."
On Thursday's show, Bridge expressed his frustration at Whanau's refusal to appear on the show to discuss the mural and her stance, saying that she was "possibly worse than Wayne Brown" for repeatedly not appearing despite numerous requests.
"We asked her on the programme to speak about this and you remember [Auckland mayor] Wayne Brown copped a lot of flak for not fronting up to the press, for not doing the media rounds, and he's been a lot better at it lately.
"Tory Whanau is possibly worse than Wayne Brown - we've asked her on this programme at least five times in the last couple of months. Once, most importantly to talk about the council's budget and the fact it's blown out by a billion dollars according to some. She just doesn't come on the show," he said.
AM host Melissa Chan-Green agreed, saying: "It's a good point because when Wayne Brown was first elected and we were asking for interviews and he wasn't giving it, we slammed him for not being available and I know sometimes when we say things like this, you're like you guys think you're so important that people should come and talk to you, but as elected officials it is their job to be open and transparent and available to comment to the public."
Bridge continued his frustration, saying the lack of transparency was difficult to deal with from a publicly-elected official.
"Especially when it comes to things like rates at a time like a cost of living crisis - if there's a huge hole in your budget and you're going to have to find that money, there's a good chance they're going to whack your rates up and I know Wellingtonians and I know how uncertain and worried they are about this issue. It's only fair that a mayor who you elected would front up and tell you more about that."
Watch the video above.
