Explained: Why former Labour leader Andrew Little wants to be Wellington mayor

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Andrew Little opens up about why he’s running for mayor of Wellington, citing the city’s crisis of confidence and his push for financial accountability, better public services, and leadership that listens to businesses and residents.

Former Labour Party leader Andrew Little has decided he wants to be mayor of Wellington, despite having been “very happy” with his decision to leave politics and return to law.

He said he made the decision after approaches in recent weeks by people from “right across the political spectrum”.

Wellington needed “urgent change and serious leadership”, and he wanted to build a city that, among other things, “prioritised housing development and cheaper public transport”, he said.

Little is challenging incumbent Tory Whanau, who wants a second term and was endorsed by the Green Party last week.

Andrew Little says Wellington needs “urgent change and serious leadership”.

Is Little right - does Wellington need ‘urgent change’?

That depends on what sort of home town you want, but an argument can be made the city hasn’t done a great job of leveraging its position as the country’s capital.

Here are two indicators.

The Labour leader spoke to media from Parliament on Wednesday.

The latest Stats NZ data shows, in the year to February, just 1.6 dwellings were consented per 1000 residents in Wellington City. That’s among the worst rates in the country and compares to the nationwide figure of 6.3.

The 2023 Census showed essentially no growth since 2018 in the Wellington City population, while the country as a whole had 6.3% more people. Auckland was up 5.4%, Hamilton City 8.6%, Tauranga City 11.5%, Christchurch City 6.1%, and even Dunedin City managed a small amount of growth, with 2.1%.

What about Little’s ‘serious leadership’ comment?

There have been challenges, so much so that last October the Government decided to appoint a Crown observer to the council.

The appointment arose out of issues surrounding the council’s long-term plan process, with then-Local Government Minister Simeon Brown saying the council was not utilising its balance sheet appropriately to maintain critical infrastructure such as water, and was failing to manage its insurance risk appropriately.

The messy, long-term plan saga revolved around whether the council’s 34% shareholding in Wellington Airport should be sold.

Last May, a majority of councillors voted to sell - with the proceeds to go into a fund to deal with investment and insurance risk, and help Wellington rebuild after a major disaster.

But the decision was reversed in October, when most councillors voted to stop the sale.

Members of the public opposed to selling Wellington Airport shares at the October meeting where the sale decision was reversed.

Since then, the council has agreed to an amended the long-term plan, after hours of wrangling over ways to reduce spending. That plan is now open for public consultation.

OK, that was a hiccup, but what do Wellington residents think?

Some council candidates under an “Independent Together” banner see voter dissatisfaction with rates rises as their path to victory at this year’s elections.

Details have yet to be provided, but the group has promised zero rates rises for the next three years.

Tom Hunt, a reporter at The Post, wrote an article in January showing how his Wellington City Council rates had increased from $2160 in 2013-14 to $4935 in 2024-25. In just the past three years, the rates rose by about a third - from $3717 in 2022-23.

For 2025-26, a rise of 12.2% is proposed, with rises of 8% the year after, followed by two years of 9% increases.

The council’s enthusiasm for cycleways - largely at the expense of parking spaces and room on the road for other traffic - has been controversial, but there are many cyclists in Wellington, so it’s not clear if that policy is a net winner or loser for the incumbents.

Mayor Tory Whanau at the October meeting where the decision to sell Wellington Airport shares was reversed.

Linked to the extension of the cycleways network, businesses have criticised the impact of a council project on the Thorndon Quay commuter route into central Wellington, with some businesses citing the project as causing them to close or move.

And the council is planning to get construction under way in 2025 on another major disruptive central city development - the so-called Golden Mile project that includes key retail and hospitality areas.

Looks like the voters will have a decent contest for mayor

It will be interesting to see how Little’s approach differs from that of Whanau, and how the contest between Little and Whanau affects the chances of Independent Together (no rate rises) candidate councillor Ray Chung.

And will there be enough interest in the election - which finishes on October 11 - to push voter turnout above the 43.3% in 2022?

Others who have confirmed they are candidates for Wellington mayor are former councillor Rob Goulden; Kaffee Eis businessman Karl Tiefenbacher; Kelvin Hastie, who describes himself as a “predator free community champion”; and Graham Bloxham, who set up the Wellington Live Facebook page.

August 1 is the last day for nominations.