Banks backdown on projects he 'parroted' surprises Brown

Auckland Mayor John Banks. Photo / Getty Images

John Banks has cast doubt about his commitment to rail and other major projects in Auckland after accusing his Super City mayoral opponent Len Brown of "ticking off $40 billion of spending".

"I'm going to hold your rates affordable, I'm not going to promise you six lanes under the harbour, airport links ... building this and putting money into that.

"We simply cannot go on in meetings like this and recklessly buy votes and treat you like an ATM machine," Mr Banks told several hundred people at Auckland University last night.

In the first real testy exchange of the campaign, Mr Brown said he was surprised to hear Mr Banks no longer supported rail to the airport, an inner-city rail tunnel and rail to the North Shore after "parroting" his own support for the three projects until now.

"I can make this promise to you, I sure won't be ballasting our rates by bus lane fines," quipped Mr Brown

He added Manukau had the lowest average rates in the region at $1845, compared with $2450 in Auckland City.

Mr Banks' comments about major projects follows a suggestion by Transport Minister Steven Joyce last week that the rail expansion hopes of mayoral contenders were linked to the "lunar cycle".

Mr Joyce told an infrastructure conference that a $1.5 billion central city rail tunnel was "the only serious major project worth considering in the foreseeable future for Auckland commuter rail - and even that's a big commitment".

Last night, Mr Brown dismissed the minister's message, saying Auckland had the opportunity with the Super City to work with the Government to complete the tunnel, rail to the airport and the North Shore over the next 10 to 15 years.

However, Mr Banks hosed down expectations by saying the country was pretty much broke and could only have "affordable progress" - the same message he gave voters in 2007, when the economy was booming.

Asked about his vision of bringing the Olympics Games to Auckland in 2020 at a cost of billions of dollars, Mr Banks said the city would never host the Olympics.

To another question about the environment, Mr Banks drew boos when he said "we have to complete Auckland's motorway network".

"We have to get people out of cars and into integrated public transport but we also have to fix Auckland's motorway network otherwise we will continue polluting Auckland," he said.

Mayoral contender North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams criticised Mr Banks' council for spending $55 million resanding beaches when his council had spent money on fixing the infrastructure to keep beaches clean.

In a lighter moment, actor and mayoral candidate Simon Prast said if he ran the Auckland Theatre Company the way Queens Wharf had been handled for the Rugby World Cup, "we would never get to an opening night".