John Banks considering third go at being Mayor

Brian from New Lynn

The 72-year-old former Auckland City Mayor has hired a team of political strategists. John Banks believes the super city needs decisive leadership, comparing current Mayor Phil Goff to a decaying vegetable.
"This leadership is like grandma's boiled cabbage - every single day it gets worse. We need to have a change at the top - someone needs to stand up, and if they don't, I need to step up." Nominations open this Friday. Banks served as Mayor of Auckland, before the amalgamation into the super city, from 2001 to 2004 and again from 2007 to 2010.
He says the ideal candidate needs strong policies. "In the absence of someone that's prepared to stand up and deliver to the city accountability and financial responsibility, then I am considering it... We need to turn this city back to a place where the ratepayers and citizens have a say, not run by an arrogant council with a very colourless Mayor.
Banks has also served as a National Party MP, six years as Police Minister, and briefly led the ACT Party. If he runs, Banks will arguably be the strongest candidate from the right - the two frontrunners, Goff and John Tamihere, both former Labour Party MPs.
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