Andrew Little: Wellington mayor outlines his priorities for the city

Andrew Little is laying out his priorities as he takes the Wellington mayoral chains. 

He won a landslide in the capital, getting more than 34,000 votes. 

His nearest competition was Karl Tiefenbacher on 8807 votes. 

He's acknowledged leading Wellington is a big job, but he's determined to take the necessary steps.

"I'm serious about a council where everybody has a role, has a place and a stake in what we do - and then sort of knitting that together."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rutgan
from News Talks edb Sue.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Wellington Now and former Labor Party leader Andrew Little has
convincingly won the mayoralty in the Capitol. He has finished
over twenty five thousand votes ahead of his nearest rifle.
Andrew Little is worth me now. Good morning Andrew, Congratulations.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Good morning friends. It's a here. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
So what a difference a year makes. I mean, this
time last year you had no intention of running for
counsel and now you're mayor. Are you ready for the
job ahead? Are you ready to be back in public service?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, because you have to be. And I thought very
long and hard about it, but yeah, it was funny
having been asked just every year ago and said no.
At the time was something I was interested in. Then
took an interest in what was happening. You got increasingly
concerned about what was happening and just thought the council
wasn't doing the best and taking advantage of opportunities such

(01:00):
as the Central Government's Regional Deals program to do the
best for Wellington And at that point of the actually
idea have a set of skills and a track record.
It's about bringing people together and keeping a focus on
good decisions that that would be good for Willington. So
then throw myself into it. And yeah, and very pleased
with the result.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Andrew Wellington's problems have been pretty well publicized. You've got
quite a big job ahead of you. What's first on
the agenda?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Yeah, I think just getting around the counselors, who the
returning and newly elected counselors. I'm just seeing where everybody's at,
seeing what their priorities are. I think it's all the
steps that need to be taken over the next few days,
just to make sure everybody is involved and included. And
then I'm serious about a council that everybody has a

(01:47):
role and has a place and has a stake and
what we do and then sort of letting that together.
And then I think in terms of practical things, you know,
we've got opportunities now to get the affordable housing, high
density housing set of developments accelerated and underway. We're a
city that needs we need to grow our population. We've
been static for for seven or eight years. So all

(02:09):
the stuff we can do that's going to make the
ceity attractive and appealing and affordable as the top priority,
and I know that there's pend of other counselors who
share that, and I'm comfortable to give us some good programs.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yesterday you called out the toxic behavior that toy Fano
and endured during her time as mayor. Are you concerned
about the current culture of the Wellington Council.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
I think we saw arounder Tory's time just some pretty
ugly conduct, some pretty ugly behavior. I think the message
is pretty careful when ittainings in this campaign. They just
don't get that. They don't they don't accept that. Now
it's just not acceptable and so it is incumbent on
I think all of us, all of these officials, to
make sure that actually we model good behavior. And that's
not about I mean, I've think clere during the campaign.

(02:53):
It's actually a cave councilor's disfiguree around the table. That's
actually a healthy thing. Things should be up for debate.
There's no you know, there's no one way to skin
a cat, so to speak. But that debate's got to
be respectful and and you know, people's personal integrity has
to be respected. You don't go undermining people or you know,
making gratuitous personal attacks on people. So big well and

(03:16):
Wellington are spoken pretty clearly that they don't want to
see that anymore, and it's our job to make sure
that we conduct ourselves properly.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
How do you go about winning back the trust of Wellingtonians.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
I think that the things that they expect to see,
they do want to see. The spending under control. There's
no question there's some big, major I mean, you know,
rates to go like look everybody's stuff at the big
increases in rates and well it's been thirty percent over
the last couple of years. That's got to get under control.
The big capital projects where the budget just seems to
completely blow out, tells us that there's a capability problem.

(03:51):
And then that stuff that's actually just backing Wellingtonians. Now,
I've met so many people who said when they deal
with the council, you know, they get told one thing
and something different happens, or they are consulted and they
put up ideas, but it's never reflected in whats So
I think just taking some time to listen and demonstrate

(04:12):
that actually the Council is capable of taking on other ideas.
But most importantly supporting those who want to make a
difference that developers and investors who want to get their
stuff done. We've got some really amazing industries and willing
to beyond just being the capital city and government. We've
got a strong science sector, a strong tech sector, obviously
the creative arts, and they think to who that they

(04:33):
want to counsel that's going to back them in partner
with them not being obstructed in obstruction to their ambitions.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Andrew, how did a local body campaign compare to running
for central government?

Speaker 3 (04:45):
It's way more intense. It's interesting in the number of
candidate meetings. I did what roughly forty candidate meetings in
a parliamentary campaign. You might do ten, maybe a dozen.
I mean, there's more people to get around. Fair to
be fair, but also what you realize is that the
issues that you're talking about are close to people's lives,
and so people do do take a more intense interest

(05:09):
and feel I think, more personally connected to the issues
and therefore the people who are are standing for office.
So I found it more intense than in parliamentary campaigning.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Interesting because you know the people who were there are
obviously interested, They're going to vote but how do we
get all those other people who aren't engaged in local
politics to turn up and vote.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yeah, that is that's the big challenge obviously. You know,
local government voting has always suffered pretty low numbers and
got up. You know, we all sort of thought it
was a great thing when the numbers got up to
the forties you in twenty twenty two. So look, I think,
you know, one of the things I think is having
a long voting period where the ballot papers get sent
out and then kind of sit around on people's kits

(05:48):
and tables or kits and benches for you know, several weeks.
I know myself, I filled out my ballot paper, but
I literally walked around with it in my bag for
about two weeks before I got around to sort of
putting it into a box. So I think there is
something to be said for that having a day focus
saying that this is election day. Sure, you can have
the yearly those, but here is a day where you
can get out and vote and your vote will be counted,

(06:11):
rather than stretching it out over the period of a month.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Andrew Little, thank you so much for your time and
best of luck.

Speaker 3 (06:16):
Thanks for insviscas your the Best.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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