Auckland Waterfront Stadium Not a Priority

Auckland mayoral candidate John Palino is opposing discussions about a waterfront stadium until the big issues facing Auckland are dealt with.

In the three years since I first announced I was running for mayor in 2013 not a single Aucklander has come up to me and said “John as mayor you need to build a waterfront stadium”. In this time people have frequently complained about massive rates rises, wasteful council spending, unaffordable housing or the huge problems “smart growth” or a “compact city” will cause Auckland.

The deeply flawed Unitary Plan, which will increase high rises in some of our beautiful leafy suburbs and block home owners views and sunlight is another priority.

These are the issues I intend to fix. They are the issues that matter to Aucklanders. All too often politicians spend time looking at the next big trinket they can use to stop the public thinking about rates & other issues that impact voters every day.

Under a Palino mayoralty large spending on projects like a waterfront stadium will not be discussed until we have rates reduced by 10%, we have freed up significant land supply to stop housing being priced out of reach for many Aucklanders, and invested heavily in council internal processes to make council quicker and easier to deal with.

Politicians must be judicious with their limited political capital. I intend to invest my political capital on the issues that matter to Aucklanders, rates, housing affordability, intensification of our lovely leafy suburbs and transport. A Palino administration will solve these problems for Auckland ratepayers before moving on to using massive amounts of ratepayers’ money on projects like the stadium.

ENDS

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