Auckland mayor Phil Goff is looking forward to a fresh set of eyes at Ports of Auckland.

Chief executive Tony Gibson announced last week he would step down at the end of June, saying persistent and sometimes personal attacks on him as CEO were damaging to the company.

Union and Māori community leaders have been calling for his resignation since a reviewed ordered by the mayor found a poor health and safety culture at the port.

Mr Goff says there was nothing personal, but there were questions to be asked about deaths at the port and problems with the automotion project.

"My role as the shareholder together with the Auckland Council was to ask hard questions about what was happening on the ports and that may have been uncomfortable for the chief executive but I would have been negligent had I not asked those hard questions;" he says.

Mayor Goff says Mr Gibson had been in the job for 10 years, and that’s about the time boards consider changes at the top.

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