Colin Craig is standing for Auckland mayor in the 2010 local body elections. He provided this statement:
I'm an Aucklander and I've lived here all my life. I'm 42 years old and I live with my wife and five year old daughter in Albany. My extensive business experience will help me keep rates to a minimum, while building the world class city we all want. I have started five successful businesses, with my current company managing approximately $1.3 billion worth of property assets in Auckland.
Albert Einstein said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. In Auckland we've been doing the same old thing and getting the same old results for years. But now we have a chance to do things differently.
I believe that to succeed, Auckland needs to be kept lean, local and fair. Being lean means keeping costs down so that we can all afford to live here. It also means working co-operatively to fix Auckland's single biggest financial disaster, the Leaky Homes Crisis.
The 25:25:50 deal adopted by the old Mayors is not the best solution for Auckland ratepayers or for the victims of the crisis.
Keeping it local means that one size does not fit all. Our diversity must encouraged, with each local area fully empowered and having the ability to agree its own rates. Aucklanders do not want to lose their local identity and I am standing because I don't want to see it happen.
I have no allegiance to any political party and I think Auckland should be run independently of Wellington politics. We need to break the trend of big spending and big borrowing in Local Government. We need a responsible, debt-free approach to running Auckland. I am standing for Mayor because I believe that if any of the current Mayors are elected, we will simply get what we've have always had.
I believe in telling it how it is and speaking the facts - even if some people may not want to hear them.
I will face up to the massive financial crisis that all the other candidates are ignoring or pretending has been sorted: I will fight for a genuinely co-operative solution to the Leaky Homes Crisis that will keep rate rises to a minimum.
I will empower local boards with full decision making powers on all local issues, right through to deciding the rates to cover local area costs.
I will hold referendums on major issues to make sure people have a voice, and I will be bound by the results.
I will support the Anzac Centenary Bridge proposal as the third Auckland harbour crossing and I would introduce self-funding Infrastructure Bonds to get other major transport projects completed.
I will apply a cost/benefit analysis to every proposed major development before it is agreed. I will implement a responsible, debt-free approach to running Auckland.
I will give back 50% of the Mayor's salary to the ratepayers of Auckland.
