Banks looks to Sydney for wharf inspiration

Auckland City Mayor John Banks has looked to the Sydney Opera House to illustrate his vision to be the first "Mayor for Greater Auckland".

The 62-year-old politician today begins the first marketing phase of his campaign with an advertisement featuring the Sydney Opera House under the words "If we're going to build on Queens Wharf, let's build something great".

The scrapping of a design contest for Queens Wharf last week gave Mr Banks a golden opportunity to set out a vision to make Auckland the "aspirational capital of New Zealand".

The second part of an "upbeat" campaign is a series of advertisements declaring John Banks as mayor for Titirangi, Warkworth, Botany Downs, Onehunga, Bayswater, Takanini, Pukekohe and other communities throughout the city.

These advertisements are intended to assure voters that Mr Banks will work to retain the identity of their communities under the Super City.

They have been devised after a three-month "listening tour" across Auckland.

Last night, Mr Banks said he would probably not be campaigning on such a large scale at this point if no one else was in the race.

This was a reference to Manukau Mayor Len Brown, who not only got out of the blocks with an advertising campaign in September, but narrowly led Mr Banks by 35 points to 34 in a UMR Research poll in July.

Despite using the analogy of the Sydney Opera House and Queens Wharf on his poster, Mr Banks said the recession was not the time to undertake an ambitious project at Queens Wharf.

"As Mayor for Queens Wharf, I am going to propose to the Government that for a lot less money we can turn Queens Wharf into party central (for the Rugby World Cup) and have a great time without spending money on a crass development."

Mr Banks said if he became mayor of the expanded auckland council, he would like to build an international convention, conference and exhibition centre at Bledisloe Wharf financed by Auckland infrastructure bonds.

It could also become the location for a cruise ship terminal.