New leaf, old wounds: Mayoral candidate blocked from meetings says he’s changed

Friday, 8 August 2025

Wellington mayoral candidate and former city councillor Rob Goulden says he has turned over a new leaf, despite facing new controversy over claims he has disrupted two public meetings.

Goulden’s three terms on the council from 1998 to 2010 ended in ignominy, with allegations of erratic behaviour and safety concerns, and his failure to be re-elected.

The Post’s attempts to nail down an interview about his candidacy at October’s local body elections proved an on-again-off-again affair – over whether he would be willing to address the past allegations, which he claimed were untrue.

While this was going on, it transpired he was asked to leave the council – coincidentally on the same day he emailed he would do an interview, but said: “I will not be discussing anything from the past”. (He later completely cancelled, then changed his mind again).

Councillor Nīkau Wi Neera confirmed he was chairing a grants committee meeting on May 21. Goulden was asked to leave after causing a disturbance, he said. Staff afterwards told Wi Neera that Goulden was “demanding to see the chief executive and badgering democratic services staff”.

Then, the Taxpayers’ Union student affiliate Generation Screwed had a mayoral debate at Victoria University of Wellington on Wednesday. Union spokesperson Tory Relf said Goulden was not invited and stopped from entering.

She claimed he was aggressive and university security guards, who happened to be there, became involved to usher Goulden out. The union has now banned him from all its future events due to his alleged behaviour.

Goulden said he had been invited, but would not supply The Post with the invitation. He said he was “never rude, disrespectful or anything else”.

When Goulden did sit down for an interview he was twice asked about the May council meeting incident, but wanted to instead talk about a historical affidavit.

The 2008 affidavit covered an allegation of assault by a council manager on an employee. The allegations were later found to be unfounded in a subsequent investigation by John Marshall QC.

One of Goulden’s 2025 pledges as mayor is to “work collegially with councillors across the political spectrum”.

In 2009, the Dominion Post reported then mayor Kerry Prendergast as saying some staff would not meet with Goulden one-on-one and some councillors were concerned by “his increasingly erratic behaviour and his mood swings”. John Morrison said he was “unfit for public office”, Bryan Pepperell said Goulden had points worth listening to but had set a “new benchmark for unacceptable behaviour”, and Ray Ahipene-Mercer said his behaviour had become “totally unacceptable”.

Faced with these words, Goulden said the 2009 article the quotes appeared in related to an incident at a council meeting.

“I have changed, I have grown since then,” he said, while alleging that article was a “one-page demolition job”.

That same article covered how he was thrown out of a 2001 meeting after refusing to apologise for accusing chairperson Chris Parkin of “disgusting chairmanship” and called mayor Mark Blumsky a “wanker” in a separate 2001 incident.

He was reportedly ejected from council meetings for calling the chairperson thick and the mayor “stupid”. In 2004 he was censured for breaching the council's code, and in 2005 was accused of “haranguing, bullying and intimidating” a council tip booth attendant. In June 2009 he was escorted from a council meeting by police after a foul-mouthed tirade.

Goulden last week said he had never been trespassed from the council, the claims were untrue and they came from his “detractors”.

Meanwhile, Goulden originally signed up to the 2025 Wellington mayoral and Motukairangi/Eastern ward races under the affiliation, “Independent ‘Vision for Wellington’.”

Vision for Wellington is a group of prominent Wellingtonians, including Prendergast, that is non-political and is not running any candidates in the upcoming council elections.

Goulden said Vision for Wellington made it clear it was not backing any candidate.

“I’ve spoken to people like Dame Kerry who said, ‘if you want to pick it up and run with it, no-one else is – are you prepared to do that?’.”

Speaking after recording stopped, Goulden said he had direct approval from Prendergast and fellow Vision for Wellington member Neil Parviour-Smith to state he was affiliated with the group.

Prendergast said the claim was “completely false,” while Parviour-Smith said he had listened to Goulden through “fairly persistent” phone calls but the group had not and would not permit the affiliation.

Goulden later changed his affiliation to, “My Vision for the City 2050”.

His policies include more electric buses (a regional council area) and better bus stops, which do sit with the city council.

The nomination statement talks of reducing debt and keeping rates affordable with increases of no more than inflation.