The former Labour leader doesn’t strike me as a visionary, and nothing he said in an interview with Andrea Vance in The Post today has changed that view. No one should expect him to magically recapture the vibe that made Wellington New Zealand’s most exciting city in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Perhaps the best Wellington could hope for under a Little mayoralty is that he would be a far more competent and grounded manager than the incumbent. That wouldn’t be hard, I hear the cynics chorus; but it might be a modest first step on the city’s road to recovery.
Footnote: I haven't lived in Wellington for more than 20 years, so have no skin in this game. But I'm still a frequent visitor and grieve for the city that used to be.
15 comments:
My money is on Ray Chung, an impressive business-experienced candidate in the 2022 election and is a sitting Councilor. He knows what is needed to turn the city around, although he will need a majority of like-minded Crs to actually do that and given the nature of those who now inhabit the once great city that is questionable. "Angry Andy," as he's known, will likely push Whanau into 3rd place.
I too am a refugee from Wellington over 25 years ago. I worked in semi-government and had become disgusted at the political corruption and ineptitude so went into private enterprise. While walking down Featherston Street one lunch time. I noticed all the buildings with the names of the former occupying companies, most which no longer existed or which had transferred Head Offices to Auckland. At the time I was offered a transfer to Auckland. Eventually I took the transfer. There were no private enterprise jobs in Wellington at the level I was currently at and I would not go back into the public service under any circumstances.
My family and I have never regretted the move. Visits to Wellington are now upsetting. A recent visit on a Friday afternoon to Lambton Quay had most of the shops shutting down at four o'clock! We asked a number of shop staff, "where is everyone?". Most shrugged and said this is what Friday's are now like. The place now has a depressed vibe, empty shops and buildings everywhere, night visits to Courtney Place are now scary and no building cranes anywhere that we could see. The town is dying.
A former Labour heavyweight with a penchant for ministerial reshuffles versus an incumbent whose tenure reads like a thinkpiece on “wellness in politics.”
Let us dissect this political pantomime with the gleeful cynicism it deserves.
Andrew Little – the man who famously *volunteered* to exit stage left in 2017 so Jacinda Ardern could waltz into the spotlight – now fancies himself the savior of Wellington’s “chaotic” council . His pitch? “Serious leadership,” a phrase that rings hollow when his campaign promises – “fixing the pipes” and “cheaper public transport” – are about as revolutionary as a lukewarm flat white. But fear not! He’s “80% certain” he’ll run, which is roughly the same confidence Wellingtonians have in their bus schedules .
Tory Whanau, meanwhile, is the incumbent who’s turned council meetings into a self-help seminar. After a “bruising couple of years” featuring ADHD revelations, alcohol struggles, and a near-resignation, she’s back – thicker-skinned and Green Party-endorsed (because nothing says “stability” like a mayor who once backed selling airport shares to fund… *something*) . Her campaign mantra? “Continuity,” which translates to: “Please forget the Reading deal, the Golden Mile fiascos, and that time the city’s finances resembled a student’s overdraft” .
**Little’s Platform**: A laundry list of Labour-approved buzzwords: “housing development,” “Treaty honouring,” and “climate action.” His pièce de résistance? Vowing to “stand up to the Beehive” – a bold claim from a man who, as Health Minister, oversaw a health sector restructuring so convoluted it could double as a Kafka sequel . Bonus points for pledging to defer the Golden Mile project, a move that says, “Let’s procrastinate our way to progress!” .
Whanau’s Legacy? A masterclass in contradictions. She’s the Greens’ darling… who sold airport shares. The “compassionate” leader… who slashed community facilities. Her crowning achievement? Making Wellington’s council the political equivalent of a group chat where everyone’s yelling over each other .
Little’s résumé is thicker than a council consent file. Twelve ministerial portfolios? Impressive! Unless you recall his tenure as Health Minister during COVID, where his “steely leadership” involved replacing 20 DHBs with two entities – a bureaucratic shell game that left GPs more confused than Liam Lawson in a Red Bull car
His current campaign reeks of a midlife crisis: “I’ve fixed unions, treaties, and pandemics… why not potholes?”
Whanau has turned personal vulnerability into a political brand. ADHD? Autism? Recovery? All noble struggles, but when paired with policies as coherent as a drunk dial, it’s hard not to wonder if Wellington’s council is being run by a mindfulness app. Her “thick skin” is commendable, but perhaps less so when applied to ignoring ratepayers screaming, “STOP SPENDING!” .
In this race to the bottom, Wellingtonians face a choice:
- **Option A**: A recycled national politician whose idea of “urgent change” is reheating Labour’s 2017 manifesto.
- **Option B**: An incumbent whose leadership style is best described as “chaotic neutral.”
Little’s slogan might as well be: “Remember when I wasn’t Tory?” Whanau’s retort: “Remember when I wasn’t *this* Tory?” Meanwhile, the city’s pipes burst, cyclists swerve around construction cones, and the airport runway extension looms like a Monopoly board mistake .
In this race to the bottom, The real loser is Wellington’s hope for a mayor who’s neither a career politician nor a wellness influencer. Godspeed, capital city. You’ll need it.
Unfortunately political nous is seen as more preferable to common sense.
Unless the mayor has a majority among the councillors and the resolve to put the CEO and his minions back in there box nothing will change which is a shame as the Wellington of the 70's 80's and early 90's was a fantastic city in which to live... in my opinion.
I think your money may be lost. Feelz wins in Wellington these days.
I will be voting for Chung. His recent comment, that Tory Whanau is "full if sh**", while vulgar, is perfectly accurate in my view. Still, I agree with Karl that Little must be the favourite in the race. Little and Whanau might split the left vote, but the transferable voting system means that whichever of them gets the fewer primary votes (presumably Whanau) will see a majority of those votes transferred to the other. Chung has achieved a degree of name recognition in Wellington, which is difficult for local body politicians, and has a record of fiscally responsible voting on Council. But that is unlikely be eough to overcome Wellington's strong tilt to the left and Little's 'household name' status.
Hopefully, woke Wellingtonians of either colour will come to their collective senses and recognise little and whanau for their household names: failures due to imposter syndrome.
Ha ha excellent
"Unfortunately political nous is seen as more preferable to common sense."
Judging by comments I've seen elsewhere, it's just possible that even left-wing Wellingtonians are realising that Andrew Little isn't the answer to what ails this city. He's done himself no favours by characterising as "abuse" richly-deserved critique of the incumbent Mayor.
People now suspect that, were he to be elected and Tory were to win the Maori seat (assuming that it isn't disestablished by referendum), he'd make her deputy mayor. That's an unappetising prospect for all voters who want her nowhere near the levers of power.
Another of the many examples of bias in Stuff or simply just poor reporting and/or editing?
Nowhere in the story is there any fact to support the claim little is in any way a front runner!
Emma Ricketts
Apr 30, 2025 • 2:40pm
With Tory Whanau out of Wellington’s mayoral race, Andrew Little is a clear frontrunner.
And to add to the pvs posting, little has not been asked what his plans were , if elected, for improving the business environment which has experienced a multitude (no hyperbole) of cafes, restaurants and small enterprises flee the golden mile and the city. Another puff promotion piece for the left wing some would strongly suggest.
A Masterclass in Almost Governing
————————————————————
And so, with the soft thud of a thousand half-finished projects hitting the floor, Tory Whanau exits stage left — graciously pausing only to award herself a heroic 9/10 for services rendered to herself. One can only marvel at such chutzpah. It takes a certain kind of genius to lead a city into chaos and emerge beaming, arms aloft like a marathon runner who forgot to start the race.
Whanau’s term was less a story of government and more a case study in the dangers of vibes-based leadership. Policies were announced like Instagram posts — big on feeling, light on detail, and quickly forgotten when inconvenient. The cycleways expanded, the pipes burst louder.
And somewhere in the background, a string of cafes, restaurants and bakeries and retail outlets big and small shut shop.
Naturally, none of this was Whanau’s fault. Critics were gently reminded that the real issues were colonialism, capitalism, climate change and probably some kind of toxic masculinity — anything, really, except an absence of basic managerial competence. Even when she wasn’t exactly there, in the tedious, oppressive sense of showing up to work, her aura of progressive righteousness was said to linger in the Council chambers like incense in a yoga studio.
And yes, there were the “health issues” — a term that came to encompass everything from bouts of stress to unfortunate nights out captured all too vividly on social media.
Her supporters remained loyal to the end, bravely insisting that failure was merely a patriarchal narrative. Meanwhile, Wellingtonians were left to console themselves with the knowledge that while their rates were multiplying, at least they lived in a progressive dystopia.
Whanau leaves behind a legacy: not so much a city reborn, but a civic experiment in what happens when vibes govern policy. She is the only contestant, judge and prize-winner of her own mayoralty.
9 out of 10? when you’re marking your own work, why not go full 11?
"Another of the many examples of bias in Stuff...."
I'd go with bias. Stuff did something similar at the 2022 election: it decided who the front runners were, and acted accordingly. It held pre-election debates, and restricted the number of participants to those it considered to be the top three candidates, despite there being nine altogether. It was left to residents' associations, bless them, to host all of the candidates at pre-election debates.
If Stuff's intention had been to boost voting for Eagle, it was a dismal failure. At that time, the current Mayor was running as an independent, and, as we all know to our cost, she won.
I remain of the view that her election was a gigantic virtue-signal. Having read her election statement, I could discern no policy in any of it. I was suspicious of her lack of both experience and policy (and her Green connections), so I didn't vote for her. My instincts turned out to have been correct.
No matter stuff’s bare-faced, shameless (or is it shameful?) bias or not, there’s truth in the perception that the greens and left wingers are better able to mobilise the transient student population to great effect. If the bulk of ratepayers remain apathetic this elections as in the past despite the plethora of woke missteps of many of the current motley and selfishly entitled councillors, then Wellington should brace for incurable pain.
"....better able to mobilise the transient student population...."
I've commented elsewhere on this. Reportage of, in particular Green, tactics at the 2022 election, suggests that there was a breach of the Electoral Act. I assume that Act applies to local as to general elections. The fact that they got away with it speaks volumes about official failure to pay attention to what was happening. And possibly about blind eyes being turned, because it was Lefties doing it.
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