Auckland Mayoral hopeful Viv Beck has accused her fellow candidate Leo Molloy of half a year of "lobbed insults" as the race for who will next lead the Super City heats up.
On Wednesday evening, Beck, Molloy, and fellow candidates Efeso Collins and Craig Lord took part in a Mayoral debate at Māngere's Radio Waatea - during which they discussed topics including climate change.
Near the end of the event, the candidates were asked to summarise their visions for the city and centre-right candidate Beck took her chance to hit out at Molloy.
She said Auckland needed a Mayor who would be the "ultimate champion for our region".
"I think it's also important that you think about the style of leadership that you're going to get. Efeso and I have talked about the importance of the mana of the role of Mayor; the dignity and integrity you actually bring to the role."
She said Auckland's Mayor needed to be able to work with a wide range of people.
"You don't need to be angry every day," Beck said. "Anger is not good. I've seen anger tonight, delivered at me, from someone who's lobbed insults at me for the last six months and I've risen above them.
"It is absolutely time, on behalf of people who are victimised in our society, that we call it out. We need respectful behaviour and… a respectful Mayor.
"I want to be that person. I want to be a Mayor for all of Auckland," Beck added.
Molloy, who had earlier told Beck not to interrupt him, said in his summary that "back to back, back to back Labour Mayors" had led to Auckland being inefficient.
Outgoing Mayor Phil Goff was a former Labour leader and his predecessor Len Brown was also in the Labour Party.
"There's a lot of work ahead and we need to have a different perspective," Molloy said. "It's time we moved on from electing people because they're aligned with a particular party. We don't want to have any alignment or any control coming out of Wellington any longer.
"We want someone who just cares about Auckland, Tāmaki Makaurau."
Last week, Molloy drew the ire of fellow candidates after a foul-mouthed interview on Guy Williams' New Zealand Today comedy show. Molloy used the word "r****d" on multiple occasions while also calling Williams a "soft c*ck" and "woke".
