John Palino announces a third tilt for Auckland mayoralty

Restaurateur John Palino has announced he's running for Mayor of Auckland for the third time.

Mr Palino has run for Mayor twice before, in 2013 and 2016, losing both times. He came closest in 2013, coming second to Len Brown. In 2016 he came fourth behind Vic Crone and Chloe Swarbrick.

If it's not third time lucky, he might quit the city altogether.

"If Auckland continues in the way it's going I can't see myself living here," he told RadioLIVE's WeekendLife on Sunday.

A year out from the election he's the only candidate on the right to announce he's running, perhaps boosting his chances.

Nobody else has announced they're running yet, although incumbent Phil Goff and former Labour Party MP John Tamihere have both suggested they will.

"The whole key is whether or not there is other people running 'cause we're just going to split the vote," he said.

"Hopefully it stays that way where it's just one centre-right person and we're able to actually get something done."

Mr Palino said he's currently pulling together a support team with the help of some National Party members, but can't say who's there yet.

He did have plenty to say about Mr Goff's performance as Mayor and the current direction of the city, lashing out at the regional fuel tax, Unitary Plan and bike lanes as contributing to poor affordability and quality of life.

He believes planners in the city are too narrow-minded about how they approach design.

"Auckland planners, they call Auckland a city, they go to the rest of the world and they look at cities in the rest of the world and they study them, but those cities are not like Auckland," he said.

"Those are real cities - Auckland is more like a state or a province or a region. So when you talk about 'how do I fix a city' and then get experts to tell them how to fix a city, they're actually telling them how they should fix Auckland's CBD."

Mr Palino's last campaign was marred by rumours from his first, when it was believed he was involved in the leaking of information about an affair between former Mayor Len Brown and Bevan Chuang.

He has denied he was the person who got Ms Chuang to declare her relationship with Mr Brown after a late-night meeting between Ms Chuang and himself at an Auckland car park.

Ms Chuang has claimed to have been involved with Mr Palino's campaign worker, Luigi Wewege, at the same time as she was having an affair Mr Brown.

Newshub.