John Palino confirms another tilt at Auckland mayoralty

Sunday, 25 November 2018

Former Auckland mayoral candidate John Palino has announced he's running for the position for the third time.

Palino has run for mayor twice before, in 2013 and 2016. He came closest in 2013, securing more than 100,000 votes but still finishing a distant second to Len Brown.

In 2016 he came fourth behind Vic Crone and Chlöe Swarbrick.

The American-born Aucklander is a restaurateur and real estate agent. He's advocating a different approach to tackling the city's traffic woes.

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His key campaign points were the 'same thing I've been going with for the past five years', he said.

'Auckland's not a city, it's a province, a region, a state. We need to build it that way; we can't build it as a city, that's why we have major problems right now, and congestion's getting worse.'

He wanted to fix congestion by building 'work zones' in places like Manukau and Albany, to divert commuter traffic away from the city.

Palino would end Auckland's regional fuel tax and he was also not a fan of light rail from Manukau to the airport, he said.

'People don't realise it, but the fuel tax is going to go towards paying for the light rail. The light rail is going to destroy Dominion Rd and all those businesses while it's being built,' he said.

'In the end the people who are going to benefit from it are the property owners who have it on their doorstep.'

The mayoral hopeful was once accused of being behind a plot to bring down Len Brown by revealing his two-year extra-marital affair with council adviser Bevan Chuang just after the 2013 election.

Palino insisted he played no part in breaking the story about the affair. 

Chuang claimed to have been romantically involved with Palino's campaign worker, Luigi Wewege, at the same time as Brown.