May 2016
Palino welcomes Labour's urban growth boundary announcement

"As the only remaining mayoral candidate for Auckland calling for the removal of metropolitan limits, and the only one who's actually released a policy on urban growth, I couldn't be happier to have Labour on my side," said John Palino.

"The land constraint policies of the Auckland Council have pushed up house prices and created a problem which will take this city decades to undo.

"The problem now is that the Council has spent hundreds of millions of dollars of ratepayer money and time to consult upon plans which are now redundant.

"Immediate removal of the boundary will begin to unwind a small part of the damage six years of bad leadership has created, but it won't get back the millions of dollars which have now been wasted.

"We can still limit the damage, however.

"Housing Minister Nick Smith should join with Labour in calling on the Unitary Plan panel to shift development out of suburbs where it will now be too expensive to develop and into greenfield areas along transport spines.

"Removal of metro boundaries should be incorporated into the Panel's recommendations to Council based both on demonstrable evidence and political momentum.

"There's only one mayoral candidate who supports affordable housing, good access to jobs and the abandonment of ideological policies which have really hurt this city, and that's me," said Palino.

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