Wellington political group pledges no rates rises, can’t say how

Monday, 14 April 2025

Wellington City councillor Ray Chung, who is running for mayor under the Independent Together banner, knows where he wants cuts but the group is yet to decide.

An organised group of Wellington City Council candidates has formed to contest the upcoming elections with a policy of no rates rises – but won’t say how this will be achieved.

The group is called “IT” – standing for Independent Together – and has current councillor Ray Chung as a mayoral candidate.

IT campaign manager Libby Carson said three years of zero rates rises was one of the group’s ‘pillars“ but she could not say what would be cut to reach it.

“Within our team we have some pretty spectacular financial geniuses. They are working through the long-term budget and getting advice. What is necessary? And what is vanity?” she said.

The group had four other “pillars”: returning council to basic such as pipes, rubbish, parks and roads; bringing back accessibility to the city including restoring removed car parks (it was not clear if this would include undoing work done on the Golden Mile); having no party politics on council; and making the city safer.

“Responsible governance requires us to be upfront about the challenges we face and the steps we must take to secure a sustainable future for Wellington,” says Wellington mayor Tory Whanau. “This group fails to do that.“

“For over a decade, successive councils have treated Wellington ratepayers as an endless ATM for their tax and spend proposals and our team of candidates is going to put an end to that,” Carson said.

Wellington’s rates, which are forecast to increase each year for the next decade, have more than doubled in the past decade, with many factors to blame including cost blow outs, adressing decades of underinvestment in pipes, social housing upgrades, insurance costs and transport projects.

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, who has confirmed she is running again in 2025, said any group saying it could deliver essential services and address infrastructure issues without rates increases was “misleading the community”.

“Responsible governance requires us to be upfront about the challenges we face and the steps we must take to secure a sustainable future for Wellington. This group fails to do that,” she said.

The council’s revised long-term plan involved some tough cuts while prioritising essentials such as water infrastructure, transport , social housing, and community services.

“The reality is rates increases are a direct response to decades of underinvestment,” she said.

Chung said the group started because Better Wellington – which opposes rates rises – was considering running candidates as opposed to just supporting them, but IT was separate from it.

One member had already found $600 million in savings in the council’s nine-year budget but IT as a whole had not decided what would be cut.

He personally favoured cutting money from the Golden Mile revamp, organic waste collections, bike lanes, and looking into $400m in savings on social housing if the council could figure out how to get out of an agreement with the Government to spend the money.

A February Curia poll had Chung as having the most name recognition of council candidates and the the highest approval rating – but that was before former Labour leader Andrew Little was tipped to be taking a shot at the Wellington mayoralty.

Also running as a councillor under the IT brand is Andrea Compton, whose LinkedIn profile says she previously worked as a finance manager for HEB Construction on Transmission Gully and the iRex Interislander ferry terminal replacement. She on Sunday said specifics of what would be cut to stop rates rise would be released “in due course”.

Also in the group is Ken Ah Kuoi, Lily Brown, Philip McConchie, Michelle McGuire, Dan Milward, Melissa Moore, Paula Muollo, Mike Petrie and Stuart Wong.