Auckland Airport shares were trading at $8.70 on the NZX shortly before the sale proposal was carried. 

They fell by almost 10c the news broke but recovered to trade at $8.68 as at 4pm. 

Vote: 14-6-1

For:

Wayne Brown, Desley Simpson, Andy Baker, Chris Darby, Christine Fletcher, Shane Henderson, Richard Hills, Daniel Newman, Greg Sayers, Sharon Stewart, Ken Turner and Maurice Williamson.

Wayne Walker and John Watson voted against airport share sale but the remainder of the budget.

Against:

Josephine Bartley, Angela Dalton, Alf Filipaina, Lotu Fuli, Mike Lee and Kerrin Leoni. 

Abstained:

Julie Fairey

Councillors and Mayor Wayne Brown voted to 14 votes to six with one abstention to approve all of the mayor's first budget, which kicked off last year with savage cuts to community services, the arts and across the council group.

Councillors John Watson and Wayne Walker voted against the airport shares but the rest of the budget. Julie Fairey abstained.

Brown says the budget had been passed with more relief than joy.

Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson says she is going to keep her speech short despite having written a “humdinger”.

She says Brown’s proposal was a compromise for basically every councillor and that she is happy to support it. 

She says she wanted lower rates and less debt but "at the end of the day I am not going to sit here and say no."

Councillor Chris Darby called himself pragmatic.

 “Cutting services is harsh. I’m mindful of the very difficult and extreme positions we’ve had on the Auckland airport shareholding.

"I’ve gone from sell-none to sell-some. I am reluctantly in that category."

He says Council had ignored any capital gains of their shareholding.

The two women asked to leave the meeting were from Auckland Action Against Poverty.

A member of the public has interrupted Councillor Richard Hills.

The Mayor has asked for them to be removed from the meeting.

He has adjourned the meeting until the woman is removed.

Councillor Richard Hills was saying he had found a middle ground. 

He spoke about how he was still not happy about selling any shares in the airport.

Councillor Ken Turner says he would support the mayor’s proposal. 

He added that he was not impressed with the process to get to this stage.

Wayne Brown says Turner wasn’t the only one unimpressed about the process.

Councillor Lotu Fuli says she wouldn’t support the mayor’s proposal, a position she said would come as no surprise to her colleagues.

Councillor Julie Fairey acknowledged the mayor had compromised, having changed his budget proposals since his first earlier this year.

She says she likes the $100m maximum debt level but is concerned about some funding cuts remaining in the mayor's proposal.

On selling the airport shares she says she can't support a "partial sale."

"We haven’t solved the problem, we’ve shifted it to next year."