Mayoral debate: Rivals face-off

The candidates face off at tonight's debate. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Super City mayoral contender Len Brown says he will meet monthly with leaders of the region's new local boards to ease democracy concerns.

Speaking at the New Zealand Herald Mayoral Debate in the concert chamber of the Auckland Town Hall, Mr Brown said he aimed to meet on a rotating basis to collaborate closely with the second tier of Auckland's new governance.

He said he would ask members of the Auckland Council to sit on the 21 local boards to work as closely as possible with them on the council's operations, policy and strategy.

More than 250 people were present to hear the candidates give their views on how to run the city.

The debate came on the eve of voting papers going out today for Auckland's first Super City elections on October 9.

Mr Brown, who is Mayor of Manukau, had been asked by Herald debate panel member Bevan Rapson what he would do when a local board rebelled against the council's strategic direction and made a counter decision.

The candidate said there was also an opportunity for an independent arbitrator to resolve differences.

The response from his main rival, Auckland City Mayor John Banks, was that he would "open the books" of all Auckland's eight councils to establish whether citizens could afford the huge rates increases that would be incurred by Mr Brown's proposals.

Local boards would have to report to the council on their progress in spending their budgets.

"You can't give them one huge sum to spend as they wish.

"By the way, if we give free swimming pools to the people of Auckland City as they do in Manukau City, why should the elderly woman in Rodney living on her own on a fixed income pay for that? It would cost $12 million a year to give free swimming pools for the present Auckland City."

Panel member Bernard Orsman, the Herald's Super City reporter, asked whether candidates favoured extending the railway line from Britomart for a loop of the central business district.

Mr Brown said he was committed to that project, saying it was his first transport priority, to be built within five to seven years.

A rail link to the airport would be within 10 years and rail to the North Shore, via a new harbour crossing, in 15 years.

Mr Banks said Sydney's airport rail link lost money to the extent that an Auckland version would "send us absolutely broke".

However, Mr Brown said his rival had started off supporting a rail line from Britomart to the airport.

But since Transport Minister Steven Joyce had said no to it, Mr Banks was saying no, too.

Mr Banks said he believed in public transport projects but timing of their construction was "a critical issue".

Candidate Andrew Williams, who is North Shore Mayor, said he believed the inner-city loop should be built before the highway from Puhoi to Wellsford, because it would unlock the potential of the electric trains commuter project.

"The highway at Puhoi can wait, with improvements ... If we put in a bypass at Warkworth, a lot of the congestion will go."

Another candidate, Colin Craig, said it was not the right time for the economy to be embarking on big projects.

He doubted whether financing projects through a council partnership with private companies would work because of the experience with Tauranga Harbour Bridge, where the public refused to continue to pay a toll after the structure was paid for.

"People will not want to be profit machines for someone in Taiwan."

Responding to a question from panel member Fran O'Sullivan on first-year mayoral priorities, Mr Williams said he wanted to get a cruise ship terminal under way.

"I think that's critical. We have got huge potential for tourism and to make this a super hub for cruise ships in the South Pacific."

When pushed on timelines for projects, Mr Banks said the location of an international convention centre would be decided early next year.

He believed it would be in central Auckland near the Aotea Centre.

"I will negotiate with an international five-star hotel chain to come along here and build in that precinct as well, and at the same time we would upgrade and restore the St James Theatre to its former glory.

"It would be an international convention and conference centre that would provide investment, growth and jobs, particularly for people in South Auckland."

On leaky homes, Mr Craig said it was "a huge crisis" and the reality was that in solving it, a number of other things would have to go on hold.

Mr Williams said: "The leaky homes disaster is a worse national disaster than the Christchurch earthquake. It's an eight to eleven billion [dollar] disaster."

He said money set aside to fix the problem should not be spent in the courts and on lawyers.