14,000 votes. During this election, Quax complained to the electoral office over an "offensive flyer" depicting him and members of his People's Choice party as the Thunderbirds. His complaint was not upheld as there was no evidence to suggest who had posted the flyers. Quax stood for Citizens & Ratepayers in the 2010 Auckland Council elections, losing to Jami-Lee Ross by 253 votes. In 2011 Quax was elected to the council after a by-election was held in Howick due to Ross resigning after becoming a Member of Parliament. He was re-elected unopposed in 2013. During the 2013 Len Brown mayoral scandal, Quax took the opportunity for political payback against Brown, leading the call for him to resign for not declaring hotel upgrades as gifts. It emerged that Quax had also not filed returns on the gifts he had received during the previous term. Quax was re-elected in the 2016 Auckland elections. In his tenure as councilor, he opposed high density housing and public transportation, and supported selling Auckland's council-owned water and wastewater supplier Watercare Services. While originally opposing the council's proposed Unitary Plan, Quax later supported the plan in full. Quax was described by The New Zealand Herald as "right wing". "Quaxing" Quax tweeted in January 2015 about his disbelief that anyone in the Western world would go shopping by means of "walking, cycling, or public transit." Twitter users responded by creating the hashtag "#quaxing". The Public Address website voted "quaxing" as its word of the year 2015, followed by "Red Peak" and "twitterati". Personal life Quax and his family arrived in New Zealand from the Netherlands on 10 October 1954. According to an interview in the New Zealand Listener the family had travelled on the same ship as former Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres. Quax became a naturalised New Zealander in 1969. Quax married three times, his third marriage being to Roxanne in August 1991. He had three children, with Theo being on the NAU Lumberjacks cross country team. Illness and death It was revealed on 27 November 2013 that Quax had been undergoing treatment for throat cancer, which had been diagnosed two months earlier. Quax died of cancer in Auckland on 28 May 2018, aged 70. References External links |- 1948 births 2018 deaths Dutch emigrants to New Zealand Olympic athletes of New Zealand Olympic silver medalists for New Zealand New Zealand male middle-distance runners New Zealand