[11][12] In 2015, he was part of a successful campaign to save, strengthen and restore Dunedin's courthouse building after it was deemed an earthquake risk.

[8][24][1][25] In May 2020, the Dunedin City Council approved a set of measures designed to entice the public back into the CBD following the COVID-19 lockdown.

[28] In October 2021, Hawkins has expressed concern about the Sixth Labour Government's Three Waters reform programme, stating that local communities had been denied the opportunity to participate in the discussion.

[29] Hawkins had also published an op-ed column expressing concerns about its financial benefits, local consultation and the danger of privatisation.

[32][33] In late March, the DCC voted by a margin of seven to six to reverse their earlier decision to join "Communities 4 Local Democracy."

Hawkins stated that he did not have a budget to go for a "saturation strategy" unlike Radich's Team Dunedin, which plastered posters on streets and shop windows.

[4][38] During the 2022 mayoral election, Hawkins received abuse and harassment including his personal address being published online by an opposing candidate, his family car being paint bombed, and an attempted entry into his home.

[39] By April 2024, Hawkins had co-founded an enviro-tourism, carbon farming and biodiversity project called Flourit with fellow Dunedin residents Hugh Evans and Blair Boswell.

[5] In late July 2023, Hawkins criticised a Lotto New Zealand advertisement message "Imagine the weather in the Mediterranean $15 million tonight" as "pathetic and incompetent" in light of the ongoing 2023 European heatwaves, which had adversely affected several European and North African countries around the Mediterranean Sea.

[40] In July 2023, Hawkins claimed that criticism of the University of Otago's focus on the Treaty of Waitangi and new logo were motivated by anti-Māori racism.

He objected to the nurse Jennifer Scott's remarks likening the inclusion of transgender people in public spaces and toilets as "child abuse," describing her views as "hard to listen to" and "at very least distasteful, if not repugnant.