Wellington mayoralty: Will cash be the kingmaker?

Thursday, 1 May 2025

Wellington mayoral candidates, clockwise from top left: Andrew Little, Karl Tiefenbacher, Kelvin Hastie, Graham Bloxham, Rob Goulden and Ray Chung.

Andrew Little’s apparent favouritism for Wellington’s mayoralty is far from locked in, with one rival boasting a $200,000 campaign war chest.

Six men – Little, Ray Chung, Karl Tiefenbacher, Kelvin Hastie, Graham Bloxham and Rob Goulden – have signalled they are running for the top job at October’s local body elections.

Little, Chung and possibly Tiefenbacher are seen as the most likely contenders.

Labour-backed Little will have his party’s considerable resources behind him, but Chung, who a Curia poll earlier in the year showed had strong support, also has powerful backers.

Sitting city councillor Ray Chung is well supported, polls suggest, and has plenty of financial backing for a mayoralty bid.

He is part of a group called Independent Together (IT), which insists it is not a party but independents with shared goals. It is closely linked to lobby group Better Wellington and already has at least one electronic billboard up, on Adelaide Rd.

Chung said IT already had a $200,000 war chest going into the election ‒ although Better Wellington spokesperson Alistair Boyce said the figure was closer to $150,000 and not all was going to candidates.

Political group Independent Together already has billboards up on Adelaide Rd near the Basin Reserve.

A spokesperson for Little’s campaign said it was “early days”, but donations were coming in.

The Post on Wednesday asked all six mayoral candidates whether they would declare their donors, of $1500 or more, before voting started in September. The request was to give voters insight into those backing prospective city leaders.

Election rules means donations of $1500 or above have to be declared and donors identified, but this can wait until up to 55 days after the election.

Independent Together policies includes no rates rises for three years and keeping party politics out of local elections.

“My campaign will provide an account of all donations above the declarable limit of $1500 before voting begins,” Little said. “Wellingtonians have a right to know before they cast their vote, not after.”

Tiefenbacher pledged to “follow the rules as required”.

“As I have not approached donors at this stage, it would be premature to comment,” he said.

Chung said he did not know who had donated to Better Wellington, but he would be finding out. He would only release the names of donors, before voting, with their permission.

Hastie committed to releasing any donations of $1500 or more but had no donations so far and had not been seeking any. “If Andrew Little is in, then so am I,” he said.

Goulden said he didn’t see a problem with releasing donors ahead of voting but “many donors like to remain anonymous or want privacy around their business and personal affairs and I will always respect their wishes as well”. Bloxham said, “you know the drill”.

Tory Whanau won the Wellington mayoralty in 2022 with campaign costs of just under $60,000, which was largely self funded. Her nearest rivals, Andy Foster and Paul Eagle, spent $54,000 and $57,000 respectively.

Only Whanau and Eagle followed through on the promise to identify donors pre-election.

When Foster released his, after the election as required by law, it included $20,000 from the Chow brothers, whose business empire started with a fish and chip shop and grew to encompass brothels, commercial property and hotels.

Otago University law professor and electoral law expert Andrew Geddis said the fact donations went to Chung and other candidates via Better Wellington did not get them out of the post-election declaration rules. They still needed to name large donors.