Suddenly the boring is making local body politics interesting

Tuesday, 22 April 2025

Former Labour leader Andrew Little has invigorated the Wellington City Council mayoral contest - at least among those who care, writes Dave Armstrong.

Dave Armstrong is a playwright and satirist based in Wellington. He is a regular opinion contributor.

OPINION: Until last week I never thought I would ever use the words “Andrew Little” and “has made things interesting” in the same sentence.

Yet while the phlegmatic former Labour leader may not be the first person you think of to welcome out-of-towners to the World of Wearable Arts or to lead a Pride Parade down Lambton Quay, you can imagine him chairing a diverse range of councillors and getting them to reach a consensus.

“Sensible” was the word I heard endlessly once Little threw his hat in the ring for the Wellington mayoralty.

And after three years of so much turmoil in the capital – not all of it the fault of the mayor or council – the word “boring” may not disadvantage a mayoral candidate in our Trumpian world.

Incumbent mayor Tory Whanau faces a real challenge responding to Andrew Little’s policies, writes Dave Armstrong.

After announcing his candidacy, Andrew Little was immediately endorsed by former centre-right mayors – always a double-edged sword for a Labour-leaning candidate. His policy so far is a mixture of heartland Labour values – cost of living, social housing, alleviating pain from rates rises, helping the homeless, no to corporate welfare – and diluted, cautious, centrist environment policies typical of Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins and others on the right wing of the Labour Party.

Little mentions climate change as an issue but wants to re-look at a couple of existing cycle lanes and possibly slow down the pedestrianisation of Lambton Quay. It seems that cycle lanes and pedestrian spaces are good where poorer people commute but are not so good where rich, older vocal people like to park or shop, such as in Tinakori Rd or Lambton Quay. I’m not sure if the planet knows the difference.

Nevertheless, Little’s policies create a real challenge for incumbent mayor Tory Whanau. Even though she is way more committed to environmental policies than Little, as we would expect from a Green, she can be easily outflanked on the left by him thanks to her support of asset sales, water meters and other policies advocated by the neo-liberal council leadership.

With the defeats Whanau has suffered over the Reading Centre and the airport share sale, it would be easy to say she hasn’t achieved anything, but that would be unfair. If you support cycle lanes, the increase in the city network is impressive. Housing intensification can also be controversial, yet Whanau successfully brought radical change to the district plan, which will make Wellington way more compact.

Not everybody hates Wellington’s cycle lanes - although given the nature of Wellington’s local body political debate, you’d be forgiven for thinking so, writes Dave Armstrong.

Some on the left have complained that Little is picking on a vulnerable Green when he should be fighting the right wing, which is not in the spirit of the cosy relationship the two parties are meant to have. This is rubbish. These people obviously didn’t witness the Greens putting valuable resources into Tamatha-Paulverising Labour in Wellington Central and Genterifying Rongotai last election, while the National-led coalition swept to power.

It also shows a total misunderstanding of our STV system. If you’re left leaning you can make either Whanau or Little your first choice, and the other your second, keeping the right wing well out of it.

Similarly, if you’re right leaning and don’t want a bar of either Little or Whanau, you can vote for Ray Chung or Karl Tiefenbacher as first choice and for the other as second.

Yet I’m also wondering if there will be people on both left and right who will vote for just one candidate who they like and, in a “plague on all their houses” move, not rank anyone else.

With a choice of at least four serious candidates already and after all that has happened with a crown observer and the water pipes fiasco, you might think that turnout will be high this year, up from the sluggish 45% at the last election.

I’m not so sure. Some people spend three years complaining about a council yet don’t bother to vote. And who votes? The highest turnout by age group in Wellington last local body election was 81–85-year-olds, at 71%. The lowest was 21-25 year olds at 32%.

That’s why you would be forgiven for thinking that everyone hates cycleways and housing intensification, loves car parks, and no one wants loud music venues in the central city.

Policies aside, the other big issue this election will be leadership. Andrew Little is experienced and tactically savvy – as his selfless act of handing the Labour leadership to Jacinda Ardern in 2017 showed – and doesn’t scare easily.

Despite the conservatism of Little’s policy platform (by Wellington standards), you can’t imagine him being gazumped by council management over “fiscally neutral” airport share sales or being conned into the Reading deal.

Then again, this time three years ago, I totally underestimated the depth of feeling against Paul Eagle for not resigning from Parliament to stand for mayor, the efforts of Whanau’s young emerald warriors to get her name out, and the scale of support for Ray Chung. The race is far from over. It will be a fascinating six months to election day – for about 45% of us who actually bother to vote.