The mayoral candidate and his conspiracy theory

Standing in Auckland - Simon Prast. Photo / NZ Herald

Simon - "I have used P" - Prast is a man of many things: a candidate for the Supercity Mayoral election, a high-profile actor and director, an advocate for decriminalising methamphetamine (he has admitted he had a problem with P) and a JFK conspiracy theorist.

Prast writes on his Facebook page: "I saw a doco that said the fatal headshot came from a storm drain in front of the limo. Definitely a conspiracy. Oswald, in his own words, was just a patsy... They weren't counting on a film camera recording the crime for history.

"In Dallas that morning was JFK, LBJ, Richard Nixon and George Bush Snr. Look as well into the history of John Hinckley Jr, who failed to assassinate Reagan. John Hinckley Snr is an oil man who contributed hugely to Bush Snr's election. The Bush family is also closely connected with the Bin Laden family (the only people in the air aside from Air Force One after 9/11)."

Prast encourages his Facebook friends to view the famous home movie shot by private citizen Abraham Zapruder as Kennedy's motorcade drove through Dallas that fateful day.

"I put up as a reminder that we live in an imperfect world," Prast says with impassioned drama. "And that democracy can be defeated at high noon, in broad daylight, on the main street."

Has Clint Eastwood come to town?

Not one to shy away from melodrama, Prast, famous for his stint on that hideous '80s TV show Gloss, believes the Auckland Supercity elections "are looking for more Sense and Sensibility and less Pride and Prejudice."

A Jane Austen analogy always helps for a little perspective, presumably.

The Supercity candidate believes Auckland is becoming "a mirthless place" that will be helped by the glitzy return of the Hero parade. Restoring the gay and lesbian event is one of his aims.

"This is not the Auckland I grew up in, not the Auckland I want to live in," Prast hails from Facebook. He cites the new Onehunga Railway station as "unacceptable" and refers to Party Central as "Party F**k Up."

He believes prohibition is not an effective way of dealing with substance abuse. "Prisons should be a place of last resort, not places that need to maintain the occupancy levels of a resort."

I'm not sure what resort Prast lazes about in if he can compare it to an overcrowded prison. Holidaying with your comrades at the Cold War Hotel went out with Perestroika. Only Lindsay Lohan, the socialite actress behind the world's first contempt of court by reason of manicure, would be up for a jail that channelled a resort. She's
facing 90 days in the slammer.

But Police Minister Judith Collins had some choice words for the Mayoral candidate. "Mr Prast probably doesn't know that prison is already a place of last resort. That's why Corrections is already managing around 45,000 community-based sentences this year. That should be compared with the 8,700 in prison. By the time many prisoners end up in prison, they have left a trail of crime and victims behind them. I am doubling the amount of treatment for drug and alcohol abuse available in prisons."