Power Struggle in Avondale

L-R Duncan Macdonald, Marcus Amosa. Photo courtesy of The Spinoff

Since Marcus Amosa was elected Chair of the Avondale Business Association (ABA) last October the old guard has refused to hand over control of the chair position. The situation recently went public with revelations of the dirty politics used, including attempting to remove Marcus’ membership of the ABA.
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Some of the executive committee including Duncan Macdonald, Amanda Phillips and Victor Martick have strongly resisted Marcus fulfilling his role as elected Chair. Marcus and his brother Chris have also been trespassed from the offices of the ABA, which are situated in Macdonald’s business, Avondale Appliances, meaning Marcus has not had access to any files or records, despite being recognised by the Auckland Council as the rightfully elected chair.

Auckland Council now has two investigations running and has indicated that funding will be suspended.
When asked for comment, Macdonald responded “Marcus Amosa does not qualify to be a member of the ABA, the company he represented at the election does not pay the separate rate and did not even exist, in my opinion this is election fraud on the basis that he obtained a vote illegally. He was not the only one to do this on the night. Consequent companies he purports to own also do not meet the agreed to prerequisites of being a member.”

Things seem to have changed at the ABA from the previous 2018 term when both Chris and Marcus Amosa were on the ABA committee and now apparently, they are ineligible to even be members of the Association.

The community just want Marcus Amosa to be allowed to get on with his mission to make a real and meaningful difference in Avondale. They felt the sting of a July 2018 article in the Western Leader which described the town centre as ‘derelict’ and ‘third-world’. Comments regarding the article on the I Love Avondale Facebook page indicate that the ABA could and should have done a much better job.

The massive public interest and support on social media for the Amosa brothers has also recently generated plenty of media interest, with the most in-depth article from Madeline Chapman, who documented the whole saga in an article in The Spinoff “The bitter fight tearing Avondale apart”.

Avondale locals are proud of their suburb and love their community. They also appear to have united in support of Marcus Amosa’s leadership of the ABA, desperate for positive change in their local shopping centre.

Marcus says “Despite the way I have personally been treated, there are no ill feelings towards Duncan, Victor, Amanda or any other committee members. It’s encouraging to see so many passionate and engaged people in our community that support positive and meaningful change.”