KEY POINTS:
Ousted Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard has spoken out about the tough times he faced in his single term as leader of the country's largest city.
Mr Hubbard, the cereal maker and political novice, was tipped out of office yesterday by a margin of 10,000 votes, in favour of former mayor John Banks.
The breakfast food supremo never really looked confident at the wheel during his term. His strong public mandate was undermined almost straight away by his deputy and City Vision leader, Bruce Hucker. Their skirmishes led to the perception of Mr Hubbard being a lame duck mayor.
He was not helped by having to work so closely with the City Vision bloc, which failed to look after him and went crazy with the chequebook, hiking household rates by 33 per cent, water rates by 20 per cent and taking business class travel junkets.
Mr Hubbard also became the scapegoat for badly managed projects like Vulcan Lane, Khartoum Place and Queen St.
Nor did he do himself any favours by dying in a ditch over water rates. He refused to accept the findings of a parliamentary inquiry accusing the council of misleading ratepayers, well after all his opponents had run for cover.
A disappointed Mr Hubbard, flanked by his wife Diana, said he would have liked to have got across the line but that was not the case to be.
"I don't have a sense of bitterness at all. I totally accept the result. My conscience is clear. I gave it my best over the last three years and tried my best in the campaign.
"I'm happy I kept my values and integrity in tact," Mr Hubbard said.
He wished Mr Banks all the very best for the next term but said he still had reservations about his style.
Mr Hubbard acknowledged it had been a difficult three years and his council had taken the hard call on rates.
"The very clear message from the people of Auckland was they voted Auckland to be moving forward. The reality is the only way you could do that was to go with some rates increases and I had no doubt I paid the price for that.
"But I'm still happy we have done it. It was the right thing to do," Mr Hubbard said.
He said Aucklanders wanted action, and whilst the council had not gone too fast for Auckland, Mr Hubbard said the council may have gone too fast for the electorate and voters.
