December 22, 2025 • 5 mins
Wellington's had an interesting year.
Leaky pipes, Golden Mile chaos, and of course, they got themselves a brand new mayor out of national politics.
Tory Whanau quit the mayoralty race, headed to Melbourne, and now Andrew Little is in office.
He told Andrew Dickens that he's looking forward to next year, saying, "There's some pretty exciting things scheduled for 2026."
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're after Wellington and what a year has been for Wellington.
Leaky pipes, golden mil chaos and of course they got
themselves a brand new mayor. Out of national politics. Tory
Farner quit the Melty race, headed to Melbourne and then
Andrew Little took over.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I begged myself to forge the right relationships and get
things going. I say, far their relationships are good. Everybody's talking.
The contact I've had with the community, invo's business and others,
it has all been very positive. And so look, I
feel very confident about the way ahead.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So willing to mayor. Andrew Little joins you now morning Andrew,
Good morning Andrew. You've been in the role a while now,
are you still feeling confident?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Yeah? No, it's good. Look things are still humming along.
You know, we have three years ahead of us, got
some big things to do, but things are going in
the right direction. Defeedbeck's been very positive. There's some pretty
exciting things shuggled for twenty twenty six. We've got the
new library. I mean that's going to be a big
deal and the civic square that goes along with it.
We've got other sort of projects that are making good progress,
(01:16):
all of which will make a big difference to willing.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And how about you transitioning from national politics to local government.
Is it a big change or not?
Speaker 4 (01:24):
It's different, It's quite a bit different. It's more intense.
You draw on the same skills that you had in
parliamentary and behind politics, but you use them in a
different way. I think probably I find myself drawing more
of my old union skills, a lot, a lot more negotiation,
a lot more interpersonal stuff. Anyway, that didn't quite happen
in the parliamentary sort of context.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, because the mayor only has one vote and it's
all up to the council, so there's a lot of negotiation.
But how much of a mess has the last council
left you?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Oh, that actually left some pretty positive things in the stage.
We've got the library project at the town or project.
I mean the costs have blown out, but we all
have a state of the our facility. It was great
a couple of weeks ago, taking some senior executives from
Hollywood around it. They come over down for the premiere.
They're very keen to see the facilities and the sort
of film industry ecosystem that we have in Wellington. They
(02:14):
were very increased with the facilities that are going to
be in the town hall. So these things have been difficult, tricky,
bit ropey, but I think the end product's going to
be going to make a big difference. To Wetherson.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
They all take time, they will take money. I get that,
But for Wellington, public service cuts have hurt your ratepayer base.
Are you kind of hoping that the town diversifies to
reduce your defend dependence, your local economy dependence on public
servants and of course employees of the film industry, employees
of Peter Jackson and James Cameron.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, I think well on the public service stuff. Look,
it does a little bit of a cycle, goes sort
of up and down. But actually we do have other
strengths in terms of industries that are here. It is
very big, particularly in the gaming sector, so part of
the screen industry too to some extent, but also fintech,
finance technology. We've got some great sort of startups, hereechnology businesses,
(03:09):
we've got science, We've got you know, we've got fusion technology. Here,
we've got environmental science, you know, things like Zelandia, like
our predator free program that's all science driven. All those
things are all on twenty people developing that growing. That
stuff is stuff we're really sort of getting in behind
and supporting.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I've lived in Wellington and I visit it often, and
I want to talk about the Golden Mile project. Frankly,
you know, Courtney Place desperately needs an upgrade, and the
rest of the Golden Mile, well, okay, is it could
be so much better, but that's always caused controversy. So
what is going to happen with the Golden Mile project?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, so we've got we're at the project partly funded
by government, partly funded by the City council, but the
government funding was kept so it stopped at what I promised.
And now we've discovered that the cost of project is
sixty million dollars more than was anticipated four years ago
when it was very sort of started, So we're reviewing it.
I agree with you. The Corney Place definitely needs to
(04:07):
be spruced up. It needs some attention, and we want
to make sure that that happens. We also want to
make sure that perhaps of the original Golden Mile project,
which is about getting better bus set of transit through
the city that we hold onto those things Wellington. WELLINGTONI
is a big bus users. They need a reliable bus service.
But we just got to find a way that is
(04:28):
affordable for the city. The big thing that came out
of the election was weights have gone up way too much,
too quickly. We've got to control our spending and we've
got to control the projects that we do and when
they run over budget, we've just got to stop them.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And Wellington's got a gourd its loins for ten years
of disruption when they do that new tunnel through Mount
vic and the State Highway ran through town, that's going
to be disruptive.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, so there's still a bit of water to go
onto the bridge so to speak on that. A lot
of talks with government that is I look at some
of the design aspects so that there's some problems there
and others have pointed that out. So we want to
have a good constructive discussion with the government about how
that can be done. I mean my preference would be
a we're going to see the project that the governments
keen to do it as we sort of accelerated as
(05:11):
much as we can so we minimize that disruption. But yeah,
that'll be a picture when it happens.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, but let's talk about the now and not the future.
Tell us one great thing happening in Wellington this week,
this summer, the.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Summer we've got, we've got each year and playing at
the stadium. We've got some amazing expressions on at the
moment to this thing at Papa Breeze Mode you order
incredible expression. I know a lot of people are interested
from around the country come to see there. We've got
this incredible fact freeze drop exhbssion or so on. At
the Wellington Museum. Some great things for people to come
(05:46):
down here and look just a beautiful, steady, beautiful harbor.
Some things really happening up.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Great Sir Andrew Little Willington Mayor, thank you for joining
me on the Summer Breakfast.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
For more from News Talks b listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
We're after Wellington and what a year has been for Wellington.
Leaky pipes, golden mil chaos and of course they got
themselves a brand new mayor. Out of national politics. Tory
Farner quit the Melty race, headed to Melbourne and then
Andrew Little took over.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I begged myself to forge the right relationships and get
things going. I say, far their relationships are good. Everybody's talking.
The contact I've had with the community, invo's business and others,
it has all been very positive. And so look, I
feel very confident about the way ahead.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
So willing to mayor. Andrew Little joins you now morning Andrew,
Good morning Andrew. You've been in the role a while now,
are you still feeling confident?
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Yeah? No, it's good. Look things are still humming along.
You know, we have three years ahead of us, got
some big things to do, but things are going in
the right direction. Defeedbeck's been very positive. There's some pretty
exciting things shuggled for twenty twenty six. We've got the
new library. I mean that's going to be a big
deal and the civic square that goes along with it.
We've got other sort of projects that are making good progress,
(01:16):
all of which will make a big difference to willing.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And how about you transitioning from national politics to local government.
Is it a big change or not?
Speaker 4 (01:24):
It's different, It's quite a bit different. It's more intense.
You draw on the same skills that you had in
parliamentary and behind politics, but you use them in a
different way. I think probably I find myself drawing more
of my old union skills, a lot, a lot more negotiation,
a lot more interpersonal stuff. Anyway, that didn't quite happen
in the parliamentary sort of context.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yes, because the mayor only has one vote and it's
all up to the council, so there's a lot of negotiation.
But how much of a mess has the last council
left you?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Oh, that actually left some pretty positive things in the stage.
We've got the library project at the town or project.
I mean the costs have blown out, but we all
have a state of the our facility. It was great
a couple of weeks ago, taking some senior executives from
Hollywood around it. They come over down for the premiere.
They're very keen to see the facilities and the sort
of film industry ecosystem that we have in Wellington. They
(02:14):
were very increased with the facilities that are going to
be in the town hall. So these things have been difficult, tricky,
bit ropey, but I think the end product's going to
be going to make a big difference. To Wetherson.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
They all take time, they will take money. I get that,
But for Wellington, public service cuts have hurt your ratepayer base.
Are you kind of hoping that the town diversifies to
reduce your defend dependence, your local economy dependence on public
servants and of course employees of the film industry, employees
of Peter Jackson and James Cameron.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Yeah, I think well on the public service stuff. Look,
it does a little bit of a cycle, goes sort
of up and down. But actually we do have other
strengths in terms of industries that are here. It is
very big, particularly in the gaming sector, so part of
the screen industry too to some extent, but also fintech,
finance technology. We've got some great sort of startups, hereechnology businesses,
(03:09):
we've got science, We've got you know, we've got fusion technology. Here,
we've got environmental science, you know, things like Zelandia, like
our predator free program that's all science driven. All those
things are all on twenty people developing that growing. That
stuff is stuff we're really sort of getting in behind
and supporting.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
I've lived in Wellington and I visit it often, and
I want to talk about the Golden Mile project. Frankly,
you know, Courtney Place desperately needs an upgrade, and the
rest of the Golden Mile, well, okay, is it could
be so much better, but that's always caused controversy. So
what is going to happen with the Golden Mile project?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, so we've got we're at the project partly funded
by government, partly funded by the City council, but the
government funding was kept so it stopped at what I promised.
And now we've discovered that the cost of project is
sixty million dollars more than was anticipated four years ago
when it was very sort of started, So we're reviewing it.
I agree with you. The Corney Place definitely needs to
(04:07):
be spruced up. It needs some attention, and we want
to make sure that that happens. We also want to
make sure that perhaps of the original Golden Mile project,
which is about getting better bus set of transit through
the city that we hold onto those things Wellington. WELLINGTONI
is a big bus users. They need a reliable bus service.
But we just got to find a way that is
(04:28):
affordable for the city. The big thing that came out
of the election was weights have gone up way too much,
too quickly. We've got to control our spending and we've
got to control the projects that we do and when
they run over budget, we've just got to stop them.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And Wellington's got a gourd its loins for ten years
of disruption when they do that new tunnel through Mount
vic and the State Highway ran through town, that's going
to be disruptive.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, so there's still a bit of water to go
onto the bridge so to speak on that. A lot
of talks with government that is I look at some
of the design aspects so that there's some problems there
and others have pointed that out. So we want to
have a good constructive discussion with the government about how
that can be done. I mean my preference would be
a we're going to see the project that the governments
keen to do it as we sort of accelerated as
(05:11):
much as we can so we minimize that disruption. But yeah,
that'll be a picture when it happens.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Okay, but let's talk about the now and not the future.
Tell us one great thing happening in Wellington this week,
this summer, the.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
Summer we've got, we've got each year and playing at
the stadium. We've got some amazing expressions on at the
moment to this thing at Papa Breeze Mode you order
incredible expression. I know a lot of people are interested
from around the country come to see there. We've got
this incredible fact freeze drop exhbssion or so on. At
the Wellington Museum. Some great things for people to come
(05:46):
down here and look just a beautiful, steady, beautiful harbor.
Some things really happening up.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Great Sir Andrew Little Willington Mayor, thank you for joining
me on the Summer Breakfast.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
For more from News Talks b listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.
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