Business owner Karl Tiefenbacher announces bid for Wellington mayoralty

Monday, 31 March 2025

Karl Tiefenbacher has dropped his name into the hat to be Wellington’s next mayor.

A long-time Wellington business owner has announced his intention to run for Wellington mayor in this year’s local body elections.

Karl Tiefenbacher is running as an independent candidate for the top role, as well as a councillor for Motukairangi/Eastern general ward.

Tiefenbacher has owned ice cream shop Kaffee Eis on Cuba St and Courtenay Place for more than 20 years. He narrowly lost the last by-election to Geordie Rogers, and has twice run for a council seat and failed.

Wellington mayoral contenders, clockwise from top left, include incumbent Tory Whanau, conservationist Kelvin Hastie, city councillor Ray Chung, former city councillor Rob Goulden.

Tiefenbacher described himself as a slightly right-leaning centrist and said his biggest priority was changing culture between councillors and council staff.

“At the moment, there's restrictions on how much information councillors can get, which doesn't lead to good governance and good decision making,” he told The Post.

He hoped to correct that structure and work with the new chief executive Matt Prosser, who starts his role today, to set clear expectations around “integrity, transparency and accountability”.

Keeping the rates down and prioritising core infrastructure were his other campaign focuses.

Tiefenbacher launched a website over the weekend, which carries “Wellington, it’s time” as its slogan.

“We will get the basics right - rebuilding our foundations for an affordable and vibrant Wellington that we can all be proud of,” the website says.

Owning a business had given him the experience he would need to be Wellington’s next mayor, he believed.

“'I’ve got quite a bit of experience through both financial markets and also from establishing a business.”

“We're not only a little ice cream shop, we're also a manufacturer, we're also a distributor, we're also a wholesaler.”

Tiefenbacher went to school in Wellington, and started up Kaffee Eis after working in the finance sector for nearly 20 years, it states on his biography.

He is up against incumbent Tory Whanau, city councillor Ray Chung, conservationist Kelvin Hastie, Wellington Live owner Graham Bloxham and former city councillor Rob Goulden. Radio host Nick Mills is also considering a run.

The Labour Party announced this month it had extended its nominations for the mayoralty after n- one put their hand up.