Aucklanders got what they asked for when it comes to Mayor Wayne Brown, according to former National MP and deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett.
Brown's response to the Auckland floods has been heavily criticised with calls for him to resign.
A petition set up to remove him as Auckland Mayor had more than 20,000 signatures at of the time of writing.
Brown has been in the headlines over the past couple of days for a leaked message published by the NZ Herald.
It showed the under-fire Auckland Mayor complaining about missing out on playing tennis during the flooding emergency last week because "I've got to deal with media drongos over the flooding tomorrow".
During an interview with the Herald over the leaked messages, the media outlet claims Brown told them "don't f**k me over".
"I am the mayor for three years. You can't do anything about that," he said. "No one else in New Zealand is going to get 180,000 votes. That was my mandate.
"Last month a guy in Hamilton got into Parliament with 6000 votes (referring to National's Tama Potaka in the Hamilton West by-election). I got 30 votes for every one of those."
When asked about Brown's performance during the floods, Bennett said Aucklanders "got what you voted for".
"The man is actually no different to what he was when he was on the campaign trail and that's to the point, a bit grumpy, calls it as only he sees it and you get to know that, he's never really liked the media and has made no secret of it and he's actually if anything being true to himself," she said.
"So you get who you voted for and that's who you voted for and that's what you've got."
Appearing alongside Bennett, former Manu Samoa captain Filipo Levi said Aucklanders need to give Brown "a little bit of slack" as he's only new in the job.
"When he came in I was a bit excited because he's a bit older, more mature and he wants to fix Auckland. Then over the last few months, especially the last week, his strength is not communication but he's a doer so we need to give him some slack because he's only been in the job 3-4 months," he said.
"There is now a Minister for Auckland to come hold his hand, so I think we need to give him a chance to grow into the role as a mayor."
Bennett said Brown's communication on Friday "wasn't great" but she believes he'll learn from that and if there is a similar situation in the future she thinks he'll "step up in a leadership role and go for it".
Watch the panel discussion above
