Kerrin's dream job 'I WANT TO BE MAYOR!'

The proud Aucklander says it’s not such a giant leap from being a councillor to running the whole show

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Auckland mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni is a woman who knows what she wants, is determined to break glass ceilings to get it, and to pave the way for other women to achieve their dreams too.

“I think it’s a good thing we push against the odds when people tell us we can’t do something,” enthuses Kerrin, 44. “When someone says, ‘You're crazy to run for mayor,’ I know, actually I'm not. There’s a lot of Māori women capable of doing this job, but it’s about us being confident enough to step up and do it.”

In 160 years, there have only been two female mayors of Auckland – Dame Catherine Tizard in 1983 and Christine Fletcher in 1998.

Throwing her hat in the ring against the incumbent Wayne Brown, Kerrin wants to be the first Māori mayor of Auckland and the first woman to head up the Super City.

“From a young age, my mum always told us to be strong in our feelings and whatever we wanted to achieve, to go for it,” she shares.

Kerrin was raised in Mount Roskill by her mum Royda Leoni and grandmother, Rita Leoni in her early years, before spending time with her uncle Aaron Leoni and dad Harold Salmon’s family on Waiheke Island as a teen.