October 1, 2025 • 20 mins
Wellington mayoral hopeful Karl Tiefenbacher says he would resign as mayor and ask the Government to call in commissioners to replace the elected council if he couldn’t implement his policies.
Speaking to Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills, Tiefenbacher was asked by a caller if he would honour his campaign promises.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
B.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is that your ad Carldefan Barker joining us in the studio.
Welcome mirror candidate. Just listening to the song. Now, that's
the very first time that I've heard it. There's been
a lot of talk in our newsroom about it. Some
love it, some don't love it. What was the story
behind that.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
We had a customer of ours and one day and say,
my daughter, your dad needs a campaign song. And she said, oh,
you just try and rhyme Tiefan Barker and he came
back with us a couple of days later. We love it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Can we play it again for a second, just for
one little second. I just want to hear it. So,
I mean, it was the very first time I heard it.
We'll get it in a second. They'll play it behind.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Don't play it just before you go to sleep, mate,
I will struggle to go to sleep after you've listened
to it, because we'll be ringing in your ears all
this funny.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I used to say that because one of the people
that I work with said is exactly the same thing.
Once they'd heard it, that couldn't get out of the head.
Here we go again. I'm sure he didn't write it yourself.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I could, I would have thought I can't.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Right, let's get into it. Oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. Carl Tiffan Barker, who is running for the
Wellington mayoralty, is in the studio. He's taking your cause,
your questions, Keep them simple, keep them civic, and away
we go.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
What's the main.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Thing that Carl Tiffan Barker is going to bring to
Wellington if he becomes mayor Saturday week?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Basically, I want to bring the pride back into the city.
So I think I said to you the first time
I announced that I was standing that I wanted to
bring the pride back into the city. In for Wellington
becoming yesterday, I think we need become a facilitator and
enabler so that we can actually create the opportunities for
people to have jobs and things like that. And that
all comes from a change of culture in accounts or So,
if the one thing I achieve over my mayalty is
(02:09):
basically a council you can trust, council you can rely
on in a city whereby we are supportive of businesses,
we're supportive of residents. That would be my biggest desire.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Now every mayoral candidate is going to say the same thing.
Their priorities are to keep the rates down, stop wasteful spending.
Where will you make the cuts to enable that to happen.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, I think the key is, first of all, we've
got to get our house in order, so the moment
that the council is not operating and the way it
should in so far as we're not getting great value
for what we buy, we're not getting great value for
what we deliver. We're doing projects that we can't simply afford.
So for me, the Golden Male project, we need to
stop instantly. It's just a poor design. It's terrible design.
It does nothing for our city.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
What are you going to do to the area though
the area obviously needs some work, I.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Understand, I mean we need to clean it up. We
obviously need to. I mean we haven't done any maintenance
in the area for the last seven years while we've
been prepping for this Golden Male expansion.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That's number one.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Secondly, TV coverage is important because safety is a major
issue in the area at the moment. So if we
have more CCTV coverage. There's less likelihood that people will
come into the area and do things knowing that they
will be caught and we will be prosecuting. That would
be number one. Cleaning it up in actually giving a
regular maintenance and cleaning pro progress in there would be
(03:25):
really important. But I think also it's actually dealing with
the businesses because all the businesses along them the Golden
Mile know what we need to improve the area, but
we don't talk to them. We don't actually work with them.
We're not a supportive council to them. And that's what
we need to change.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What do you make of the new intersection in front
of the fantastic Embassy Theater. I was stopped at the
lights there yesterday. I thought, this is just a little
bit of planting it.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Literally literally it is to a line the road so
they can put a cycleway down the Golden Mile. That's
how crazy it is. And also the idea is that
when you're walking along Courtney Place you get to look
straight at the Embassy rather than actually looking up Marjorie
Bank Street. So I mean, the whole premise of changing
that design is pretty crazy. You're also going to when
(04:08):
you leave the empcene. You want to cross the road,
You're going to walk ten fifty metres down the road
out of cover and have to wait in line. And
then when you cross the road halfway across again crossing.
She changed as a crossing moving miles of rank. So
when you want to finish.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Your headphones on, we've got a caller just has a
question for you. Good morning.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Did you have a question for Carle tiff and Barkert.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Yes, good morning, Kyle Stephen Barker, Sir, welcome to the conference.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Thank you, mate.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Tell me would you be prepared well, presumably you will
honor your manifestal any event that you do not honor
that manifesto, would you be prepared to resign after they
allocated time frame?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, one hundred percent. As far as I'm concerned, my
only interest in doing this job is to keep Waghington
back on track and to make it the city the
great city at once was. If I can't achieve that,
I have no issue with standing down, I'll leave an
ask for a commissioner if need be, mate, because the
reality is, I'm just a loyal one Antonian that once
spiece was. Now I'm not doing this for a job.
I don't have any political ambitions. I don't even like
(05:10):
my photo up on the billboards. To be honest, this
is all about Wellington and wanting to do the best
for the city.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Cal you said that you don't want the Golden Mile,
Do you have actually a vision for the inner city?
How do we get the inner city back into the
way it was pre COVID even.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, well, if you think about it, the problem with
the Golden Mile is for seven years we've said to
building owners there's going to be three years worth of
disruption along your street, and this is design we're going
to put in there, and literally we're going to remove
the cars, we're going to at the time remove the
bus stops, and we're going to basically not do much
else apart from printing it up. So if you're a
building owner, if you're a business, there was no incentive
(05:45):
to do anything to your premises because literally the cost,
the likely return in the impact of the whole project
would be a negative. So first of all, we're going
to take that noose off around the next of the
building owners and the businesses so that they actually feel
comfortable that they don't have this threat. I mean you
know you've got a business along the Golden Mile, you'd
understand that if they close that road three years, you
are going to struggle to survive every other tear as well.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Exactly, no one will survive three years.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
And I was trying not to be that blunt, but
I mean, reality is, we all know that city council
don't seem to realize that. So who's going to invest
in the street where you know that if you do,
the businesses will not be able to survive.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Now you come from a business background, a true business background.
You haven't worked for a business. You own the business,
so you know the pound of buddy you're buying, right,
How will you balance the pro business priorities with the
social environmental responsibilities of the central government.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I think the interesting thing is people think that business
is a mean. In the three years leading up to COVID,
I gave away eighty three thousand dollars to charities two
and a half grand a month to local charities, over
thirty of them because I could afford to the Reality
is I still wear debt and maybe I'm a bad
businessman because I didn't predict COVID coming up, which you
know closes down for six weeks and then has had
(06:58):
an impeat for the last five years. So maybe that
makes me a bad businessman, But the reality is I've
got a social conscience, so I wanted to give back
to the city that I love and so many businesses do.
But before you can do that, you've got to be
in a financial position whereby your secure and you have
the foundations right to be able to do that. This
council is exactly the same. There's all the good stuff
we do. We need to first of all get our
house in order to get our finances in the right
(07:19):
place so that we can do the extra stuff. But
the problem is we're wasting the money on bad projects.
We're wasting the money on things like cycle ways, which
have returned for a very very small amount of people,
but actually do damage the businesses and take income out
of our stream. We need to get finances under control
so then we can start really focusing on doing some
serious good stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Oh right, one hundred and eighty ten eighty. If you've
got a question for Mayor Hopeful, Carl Tiffan, Barker's are
right to say, Mayor Hopeful, I suppose it is.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Oh I think mari elickt would be good.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, well maybe hopefull Ye tell me When people mentioned
Carl Tiffanbarker, they say Carl would be great, but why
doesn't he spend a term on council before he goes
for mayor so that he can actually learn the ropes?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, I think if I look at it, and I
know one male candidate loves saying things like this, But
the realty is we have a dysfunctional council. What I
don't want to think is I don't want to think
what they're doing at the moment is the way we
should be doing it. What I want to do is
I want to question status quo over absolutely everything. I've
got Andy FOS's number, I've got Kerry Prenaga's number. I
know a ton of ex counselors and I will go
(08:27):
for them for advice when I need to know how
to do things. I don't need to have been on
a dysfunctional council to try and pretend that I know
where to go.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But there's still a hell of a lot to learn.
In a very quick time. We learned that with Tory
Farno didn't we yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
But Tory.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
He's got a political background, she's got no business background.
She didn't really have much to qualify her in general
for that role to start with. And to be fair,
I don't have a massive ego. So I'm willing to
basically ask people for advice. I'm willing to take advice.
I'm willing to listen. What I'm very good at is
deciphering advice and seeing what makes sense and what doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What it would be the very very first thing that
you do when you put your feet under that desk,
what's the first thing you do?
Speaker 4 (09:08):
I think it would be to get all the counselors
together and sit them down and actually aim for the
vision that I have. In the vision, as I said
that I have, is for a council that is open
in receptive, so is a lot more supportive of facilitator
and enabler. Because I think we can do that no
matter who's on the council. I think that's some of
the mayor in the CEO, who I believe is a
very very good CEO by the sounds of it, from
everything he's done so far. We can set that expectation
(09:29):
of the staff. We can set that expectation of the organization.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Have you met the CEO. I haven't met.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
I have no reason to yet. I'm just a normal
person at the moment until I'm elected.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Surely that you were trying to be mayor, that you
would have made an appointment and gone and met him,
just so you know who you're dealing with, because that's
a pretty big that's a pretty big problem if you
don't get on with the CEO.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
The reality is the CEO, as I said, everything he's
done so far indicates that he's the right person. But
it doesn't matter who he is. At the end of
the day, I will effectively be his boss, and effectively
we will set the right agenda going forward. Simple as that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, he that's a very interesting question. Will will you
be his boss or will he be your boss?
Speaker 4 (10:10):
The CEO is the mayor's one employee. He's the one employee,
So the direction comes from the mayor, and I think
people forget that's important. That's so important that the direction
is the right direction we have as a city. And
that's probably the mayor's main role is to set the
direction of the city, and that is to be facilitator
and enabler.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But you're only one vote around that table.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
No, but you deal directly with the CEO, so you
actually set that direction the counselor's vote on all the
monetary expense. I'm not talking about monetary expense. I'm talking
about culture, right, But you still don't get to tell him.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
What to do.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
You get to set the direction and his job to
enable that direction.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Carl Tiffan Barker in the studio running for mayor, Carl.
I just got a text from someone saying, you ask
Carl how he was going to bring the rates down,
but you didn't ask him what he was going to cut.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
What are you going to cut?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
I think I think, as I said, the key is,
I think there's enough money in the pool anyway with
the wasteds that we're doing through procurement and deliveries. So
first of all, it's actually tied in the actually way
we operate within the council and making sure that we're
not wasting money hand over foot. So I'm against gold Mile.
I think we should stop the cycle away roll out
straight away.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So what are you going to do with the cycleways? Well,
I think we need to review them.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
I think some of them are better served as basically
timed to hour a day at peak time cycleways, and
some may may just not be appropriate all. I think
the Glemore Street one alongside of the botanical gardens, I
think we need to look at that seriously of whether
that should be at all. I think Molesworth Street needs
to probably go. I think Old Grave Street needs to go,
and there's some others, but I think we need to
(11:40):
review them all and just see whether their purpose or not.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Another question from a text machine, Nick, does Carl have
any preferred candidates for counsel that he would like to
work with?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Thanks?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Phil, anyone can email me. I'm happy to send them
an email with who I recommend in any of the wards.
There are definitely some incredibly good people standing for council
and I'd love to see a lot of those people
get on.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I mean, is there anyone that you actually think are
on council right now that shouldn't be on there and
shouldn't have a position on the council.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
I did the differently are, but I'm not going to
name them because they still might be on when I
get on and I still have to work with them
if I do that.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean, surely, if you disagree with someone, you'd actually
come out and say, actually, I don't think in the
whole of that.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
I think there's numerous ones. To be honest, I think
there's probably three or four that I'd like to see
back on and the rest probably wouldn't be on. But
I'm not going to name that.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Would you like to see a clean out? Would you like?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I mean as a welling TONI and even if you
weren't running for me or as a Wellingtonian as a businessman,
would you like to see a cleanout?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
We can remember the only reason I'm standing is because
I am a lawyer Wellington who's frustrated with the way
that the council are operating at the moment. So yes,
of course I would. I think there's been some incredibly
poor decisions over the last fifteen years really and they've
got us into a bit of a bad position. So yeah, sure, do.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You reckon there should be a maximum amount of time
that a counselor should be able to sit on the council?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Oh, I've really don't ever thought on that. You're either
a good counselor you're not a good counselor do I
care if you're a good counselor for three years or
fifteen years. No, not really, I'd rather a good counsel
was on for fifteen years. I'd rather a poor counselor
wasn't on at all.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Nick another text come through. It would be useful to
know whether or what he is Karl's going to do
with cycle lanes.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I think we need to review them all. I think
literally some of them that just not fit for purpose.
I think some of them probably are effective. They may
be better served by to our bus lane or a
cycle lane. And I think we should be looking at
at when are they actually used in where can we
best utilize it so we actually make the best decisions
for all transport users.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
How can you convince our listeners or Wellingtonians that you'll
be able to work with people with different ideas than yours?
Around ak the council table. We know that there's going
to be a lot a strong green group in there. Again,
how are you going to be able to work with them?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Look, I think the key is as you supply proper information.
I think there's a lot of issues around the information
that the councilors are dealing with. I think they don't
get together enough and they don't talk to each other.
I can deal with anyone. I can speak to anyone. Obviously,
the decisions will get out of that will still depend
on other people's leanings and views. But hopefully, you know,
if everyone's interest is purely in the best interests of Wellington,
then we had good conversations.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
We have individual views that will be so different to
you and so hard for you to swallow. I mean,
how how are you you not You're you're not educating
me on how you're going to sort that out?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Well, I think I think reality is everyone is going
to have that issue because everyone comes from some leaning
of either side or centralist or whatever. So you're always
going to have those issues. We can have different views.
The key is that we've got to get enough good
counsels on the council so that we can make good
decisions from there on in. We've got to deal with
whatever's throw in our way and make the best decisions
we possibly can.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
In a perfect world, would you like to see the
politics out of it?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I don't think there's any room for politics. Every single
decision should be made in the best interest of Valentonian's
full stop.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
If I was going to ask you if you think
that Andrew Little, who's the front runner, We're not going
to try and you know the polls are saying he's
the front runner. Andrew Little, if he was going to
be it would be a better mayor than Tory Farno.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
What would you say, how would you vote for out
of the two?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I think I think realistically they both have exactly the
same direction for our city. I don't think we'll see
any different direction with Andrew, but we'll see a hell
of a lot less chaos. So if you go you
want less chaos, which most of us would like, I
would probably say Andrew would be better than Tory. But
it does represent exactly the same direction. It's still always
going to be double rate, double digit rate increases, and
it's still going to be a city that's going backwards.
(15:23):
So I don't think we should vote for either of
them if we had the option.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Who's going to be your number two?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I actually don't know, Nick, because first of all, I
don't know who the breakup of the council will be.
But I'll be actually seeking advice from people who know
better than me of the best person with that role.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
No, I meant number two on your voting.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
List, oh number two on them. I know I was
thinking way ahead of that. To be honest, I've already
voted and I've put a couple of independent second and third,
but I'm not going to name them because the key
is that we vote for two or three independence, because
that's where STV has its strength. I mean, I mean
you talked about the polls before, yes, and I mean we've.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Had this argument on the street, right, you know, because
I publicly said that I'm only a vote for one
for the mayoralty, and you think that's a mistake. Explained
to our listeners why my idea. And I haven't voted
yet because I haven't made up my mind. You know
why I should only vote for one person?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Okay, So if you've got two or three people that
you could tolerate more than another person, So.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
What happens if I can't tolerate anyone, Well.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
In that case, just vote one. But the problem is
if you vote one and that person's knocked out, your
voter vote is lost. So where STV has its strength
is if your first options not chosen as the weakest
of the last three or four people, your second person
gets your vote. And then if that person's not strong
enough your third day. So STV can work massively in
favor of Independence, and I think it still leaves a
(16:37):
lot of room for this result not to be one
that people are being told is going to be the result,
because STV means at the moment Andrew's polling around thirty percent.
That means seventy percent of people are not voting for him.
On those numbers, we're only thirty one percent of people
to put three of the top Independence in any order
they like, and the strongest one could potentially get all
those votes in beat in bet Andrew. And that's where
(16:59):
this election is not over by a country mile. You
don't believe it, but hell no, I seriously think I've
got a really good chance. What I do need I
need people to pick if they've got that orange envelope
sitting on the counter, to pick it up, fill it
in with some good choices and put it in a
little orange box.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Do their bit.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Because I've spent nine months campaigning pretty damn hard on this.
I've probably put ninety five per cent of my time
in energy into campaigning. I put twenty five thousand dollars
of my own money into this. Just simply because I
believe we can make change. All I'm asking for that
your listeners to do is to make sure they vote,
Get out there, vote.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What will it tell you? And I believe I'm going
to be right on this. What is it going to
tell you? When the voting numbers come out and they're
very low?
Speaker 4 (17:40):
I think that'll be partly because the press have not
done a very good job, but they've sold it. Andrew
Little is the only person that's on the ballot box.
I mean, if you think of yourself, how many times
would you have mentioned his name versus mine? Two hundred
to one, three hundred to one. So we created this
environment where people think my vote's not going to count.
Your vote will count or very well could make a
massive difference. And even if we get the wrong mayor,
(18:02):
we do need to make sure the counselors are a
strong council. So whatever you do, sure we vote, because
this is our opportunity to take our city back.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Last thirty seconds, forty seconds. I'm an undecided voter. Tell
me why I should vote Kyle Tiffan Barker come before
next Saturday.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, okay, So.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Literally, I am probably the most passionate about our city.
Of any of the people that are standing, I have
probably the best understanding of how our city operates as
a whole, having run a business from startup to being
a manufacturer, an importer, a distributor, a wholesaler. So I
understand a lot about what we go through as a business.
But I also understand what we go through as a
(18:41):
lifelong Wenningtonian. I understand we're becoming unaffordable, and that's my
driving force. So I actually care about Wellingtonian's more than
anyone else that's standing. And I don't have an ego
that's going to basically stop me from taking good advice
from a whole lot of different people. And that's becoming
a city that listens in a city actually that will
actually help insupport people.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
You said before that you would resign if you didn't
achieve the things that you wanted to achieve. Will you
come on this show once a month previous me as
have done and actually front to the people.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
And you can ask me whatever you like. I will
always give you an a sci answer. I've said that
to you before and it's still storing stream.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
And you really believe you've got a chance.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
I really believe I have a really good chance.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Good on you all the very very best. Thank you,
thank you for coming in and speaking to us. And
you do make very good ice cream.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Thank you mate, it's glad.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
What's the different It's not much ice cream for it.
You still put it a cone.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
To the market, tiff and barkat who cares?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
It's the one will tea and a lot of a
lot of letters after it.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, I had to explain to someone I love telling
you the story yesterday you said, this guy stopped me
in the street. He says, you've got that guy on
the show tomorrow. I said, how did you did? You're
you're taking the pea out of me because that's how
I used to pronounce his name as well.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, but who cares?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Really?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
I mean, I'm not I'm not that vain that I
need you to get my name right. All I need
you to do is put it one next to the
carl and the tea thing with a lot more letters.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, thank you for covering it.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Great to see you again.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Good luck For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills.
Listen live to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine
am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk said.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
B.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Is that your ad Carldefan Barker joining us in the studio.
Welcome mirror candidate. Just listening to the song. Now, that's
the very first time that I've heard it. There's been
a lot of talk in our newsroom about it. Some
love it, some don't love it. What was the story
behind that.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
We had a customer of ours and one day and say,
my daughter, your dad needs a campaign song. And she said, oh,
you just try and rhyme Tiefan Barker and he came
back with us a couple of days later. We love it.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Can we play it again for a second, just for
one little second. I just want to hear it. So,
I mean, it was the very first time I heard it.
We'll get it in a second. They'll play it behind.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Don't play it just before you go to sleep, mate,
I will struggle to go to sleep after you've listened
to it, because we'll be ringing in your ears all
this funny.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
I used to say that because one of the people
that I work with said is exactly the same thing.
Once they'd heard it, that couldn't get out of the head.
Here we go again. I'm sure he didn't write it yourself.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
I could, I would have thought I can't.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Right, let's get into it. Oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty. Carl Tiffan Barker, who is running for the
Wellington mayoralty, is in the studio. He's taking your cause,
your questions, Keep them simple, keep them civic, and away
we go.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
What's the main.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Thing that Carl Tiffan Barker is going to bring to
Wellington if he becomes mayor Saturday week?
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Basically, I want to bring the pride back into the city.
So I think I said to you the first time
I announced that I was standing that I wanted to
bring the pride back into the city. In for Wellington
becoming yesterday, I think we need become a facilitator and
enabler so that we can actually create the opportunities for
people to have jobs and things like that. And that
all comes from a change of culture in accounts or So,
if the one thing I achieve over my mayalty is
(02:09):
basically a council you can trust, council you can rely
on in a city whereby we are supportive of businesses,
we're supportive of residents. That would be my biggest desire.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Now every mayoral candidate is going to say the same thing.
Their priorities are to keep the rates down, stop wasteful spending.
Where will you make the cuts to enable that to happen.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, I think the key is, first of all, we've
got to get our house in order, so the moment
that the council is not operating and the way it
should in so far as we're not getting great value
for what we buy, we're not getting great value for
what we deliver. We're doing projects that we can't simply afford.
So for me, the Golden Male project, we need to
stop instantly. It's just a poor design. It's terrible design.
It does nothing for our city.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
What are you going to do to the area though
the area obviously needs some work, I.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Understand, I mean we need to clean it up. We
obviously need to. I mean we haven't done any maintenance
in the area for the last seven years while we've
been prepping for this Golden Male expansion.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That's number one.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
Secondly, TV coverage is important because safety is a major
issue in the area at the moment. So if we
have more CCTV coverage. There's less likelihood that people will
come into the area and do things knowing that they
will be caught and we will be prosecuting. That would
be number one. Cleaning it up in actually giving a
regular maintenance and cleaning pro progress in there would be
(03:25):
really important. But I think also it's actually dealing with
the businesses because all the businesses along them the Golden
Mile know what we need to improve the area, but
we don't talk to them. We don't actually work with them.
We're not a supportive council to them. And that's what
we need to change.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
What do you make of the new intersection in front
of the fantastic Embassy Theater. I was stopped at the
lights there yesterday. I thought, this is just a little
bit of planting it.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Literally literally it is to a line the road so
they can put a cycleway down the Golden Mile. That's
how crazy it is. And also the idea is that
when you're walking along Courtney Place you get to look
straight at the Embassy rather than actually looking up Marjorie
Bank Street. So I mean, the whole premise of changing
that design is pretty crazy. You're also going to when
(04:08):
you leave the empcene. You want to cross the road,
You're going to walk ten fifty metres down the road
out of cover and have to wait in line. And
then when you cross the road halfway across again crossing.
She changed as a crossing moving miles of rank. So
when you want to finish.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Your headphones on, we've got a caller just has a
question for you. Good morning.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Did you have a question for Carle tiff and Barkert.
Speaker 5 (04:27):
Yes, good morning, Kyle Stephen Barker, Sir, welcome to the conference.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Thank you, mate.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Tell me would you be prepared well, presumably you will
honor your manifestal any event that you do not honor
that manifesto, would you be prepared to resign after they
allocated time frame?
Speaker 4 (04:49):
Yeah, one hundred percent. As far as I'm concerned, my
only interest in doing this job is to keep Waghington
back on track and to make it the city the
great city at once was. If I can't achieve that,
I have no issue with standing down, I'll leave an
ask for a commissioner if need be, mate, because the
reality is, I'm just a loyal one Antonian that once
spiece was. Now I'm not doing this for a job.
I don't have any political ambitions. I don't even like
(05:10):
my photo up on the billboards. To be honest, this
is all about Wellington and wanting to do the best
for the city.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Cal you said that you don't want the Golden Mile,
Do you have actually a vision for the inner city?
How do we get the inner city back into the
way it was pre COVID even.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Yeah, well, if you think about it, the problem with
the Golden Mile is for seven years we've said to
building owners there's going to be three years worth of
disruption along your street, and this is design we're going
to put in there, and literally we're going to remove
the cars, we're going to at the time remove the
bus stops, and we're going to basically not do much
else apart from printing it up. So if you're a
building owner, if you're a business, there was no incentive
(05:45):
to do anything to your premises because literally the cost,
the likely return in the impact of the whole project
would be a negative. So first of all, we're going
to take that noose off around the next of the
building owners and the businesses so that they actually feel
comfortable that they don't have this threat. I mean you
know you've got a business along the Golden Mile, you'd
understand that if they close that road three years, you
are going to struggle to survive every other tear as well.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
Exactly, no one will survive three years.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
And I was trying not to be that blunt, but
I mean, reality is, we all know that city council
don't seem to realize that. So who's going to invest
in the street where you know that if you do,
the businesses will not be able to survive.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Now you come from a business background, a true business background.
You haven't worked for a business. You own the business,
so you know the pound of buddy you're buying, right,
How will you balance the pro business priorities with the
social environmental responsibilities of the central government.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I think the interesting thing is people think that business
is a mean. In the three years leading up to COVID,
I gave away eighty three thousand dollars to charities two
and a half grand a month to local charities, over
thirty of them because I could afford to the Reality
is I still wear debt and maybe I'm a bad
businessman because I didn't predict COVID coming up, which you
know closes down for six weeks and then has had
(06:58):
an impeat for the last five years. So maybe that
makes me a bad businessman, But the reality is I've
got a social conscience, so I wanted to give back
to the city that I love and so many businesses do.
But before you can do that, you've got to be
in a financial position whereby your secure and you have
the foundations right to be able to do that. This
council is exactly the same. There's all the good stuff
we do. We need to first of all get our
house in order to get our finances in the right
(07:19):
place so that we can do the extra stuff. But
the problem is we're wasting the money on bad projects.
We're wasting the money on things like cycle ways, which
have returned for a very very small amount of people,
but actually do damage the businesses and take income out
of our stream. We need to get finances under control
so then we can start really focusing on doing some
serious good stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Oh right, one hundred and eighty ten eighty. If you've
got a question for Mayor Hopeful, Carl Tiffan, Barker's are
right to say, Mayor Hopeful, I suppose it is.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Oh I think mari elickt would be good.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yes, well maybe hopefull Ye tell me When people mentioned
Carl Tiffanbarker, they say Carl would be great, but why
doesn't he spend a term on council before he goes
for mayor so that he can actually learn the ropes?
Speaker 3 (08:04):
What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Yeah, I think if I look at it, and I
know one male candidate loves saying things like this, But
the realty is we have a dysfunctional council. What I
don't want to think is I don't want to think
what they're doing at the moment is the way we
should be doing it. What I want to do is
I want to question status quo over absolutely everything. I've
got Andy FOS's number, I've got Kerry Prenaga's number. I
know a ton of ex counselors and I will go
(08:27):
for them for advice when I need to know how
to do things. I don't need to have been on
a dysfunctional council to try and pretend that I know
where to go.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
But there's still a hell of a lot to learn.
In a very quick time. We learned that with Tory
Farno didn't we yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
But Tory.
Speaker 4 (08:44):
He's got a political background, she's got no business background.
She didn't really have much to qualify her in general
for that role to start with. And to be fair,
I don't have a massive ego. So I'm willing to
basically ask people for advice. I'm willing to take advice.
I'm willing to listen. What I'm very good at is
deciphering advice and seeing what makes sense and what doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
What it would be the very very first thing that
you do when you put your feet under that desk,
what's the first thing you do?
Speaker 4 (09:08):
I think it would be to get all the counselors
together and sit them down and actually aim for the
vision that I have. In the vision, as I said
that I have, is for a council that is open
in receptive, so is a lot more supportive of facilitator
and enabler. Because I think we can do that no
matter who's on the council. I think that's some of
the mayor in the CEO, who I believe is a
very very good CEO by the sounds of it, from
everything he's done so far. We can set that expectation
(09:29):
of the staff. We can set that expectation of the organization.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
Have you met the CEO. I haven't met.
Speaker 4 (09:35):
I have no reason to yet. I'm just a normal
person at the moment until I'm elected.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
Surely that you were trying to be mayor, that you
would have made an appointment and gone and met him,
just so you know who you're dealing with, because that's
a pretty big that's a pretty big problem if you
don't get on with the CEO.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
The reality is the CEO, as I said, everything he's
done so far indicates that he's the right person. But
it doesn't matter who he is. At the end of
the day, I will effectively be his boss, and effectively
we will set the right agenda going forward. Simple as that.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, he that's a very interesting question. Will will you
be his boss or will he be your boss?
Speaker 4 (10:10):
The CEO is the mayor's one employee. He's the one employee,
So the direction comes from the mayor, and I think
people forget that's important. That's so important that the direction
is the right direction we have as a city. And
that's probably the mayor's main role is to set the
direction of the city, and that is to be facilitator
and enabler.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
But you're only one vote around that table.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
No, but you deal directly with the CEO, so you
actually set that direction the counselor's vote on all the
monetary expense. I'm not talking about monetary expense. I'm talking
about culture, right, But you still don't get to tell him.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
What to do.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
You get to set the direction and his job to
enable that direction.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Carl Tiffan Barker in the studio running for mayor, Carl.
I just got a text from someone saying, you ask
Carl how he was going to bring the rates down,
but you didn't ask him what he was going to cut.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
What are you going to cut?
Speaker 4 (10:57):
I think I think, as I said, the key is,
I think there's enough money in the pool anyway with
the wasteds that we're doing through procurement and deliveries. So
first of all, it's actually tied in the actually way
we operate within the council and making sure that we're
not wasting money hand over foot. So I'm against gold Mile.
I think we should stop the cycle away roll out
straight away.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
So what are you going to do with the cycleways? Well,
I think we need to review them.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
I think some of them are better served as basically
timed to hour a day at peak time cycleways, and
some may may just not be appropriate all. I think
the Glemore Street one alongside of the botanical gardens, I
think we need to look at that seriously of whether
that should be at all. I think Molesworth Street needs
to probably go. I think Old Grave Street needs to go,
and there's some others, but I think we need to
(11:40):
review them all and just see whether their purpose or not.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Another question from a text machine, Nick, does Carl have
any preferred candidates for counsel that he would like to
work with?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Thanks?
Speaker 4 (11:49):
Phil, anyone can email me. I'm happy to send them
an email with who I recommend in any of the wards.
There are definitely some incredibly good people standing for council
and I'd love to see a lot of those people
get on.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
I mean, is there anyone that you actually think are
on council right now that shouldn't be on there and
shouldn't have a position on the council.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
I did the differently are, but I'm not going to
name them because they still might be on when I
get on and I still have to work with them
if I do that.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
I mean, surely, if you disagree with someone, you'd actually
come out and say, actually, I don't think in the
whole of that.
Speaker 4 (12:14):
I think there's numerous ones. To be honest, I think
there's probably three or four that I'd like to see
back on and the rest probably wouldn't be on. But
I'm not going to name that.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Would you like to see a clean out? Would you like?
Speaker 2 (12:22):
I mean as a welling TONI and even if you
weren't running for me or as a Wellingtonian as a businessman,
would you like to see a cleanout?
Speaker 4 (12:28):
We can remember the only reason I'm standing is because
I am a lawyer Wellington who's frustrated with the way
that the council are operating at the moment. So yes,
of course I would. I think there's been some incredibly
poor decisions over the last fifteen years really and they've
got us into a bit of a bad position. So yeah, sure, do.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
You reckon there should be a maximum amount of time
that a counselor should be able to sit on the council?
Speaker 4 (12:46):
Oh, I've really don't ever thought on that. You're either
a good counselor you're not a good counselor do I
care if you're a good counselor for three years or
fifteen years. No, not really, I'd rather a good counsel
was on for fifteen years. I'd rather a poor counselor
wasn't on at all.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Nick another text come through. It would be useful to
know whether or what he is Karl's going to do
with cycle lanes.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
I think we need to review them all. I think
literally some of them that just not fit for purpose.
I think some of them probably are effective. They may
be better served by to our bus lane or a
cycle lane. And I think we should be looking at
at when are they actually used in where can we
best utilize it so we actually make the best decisions
for all transport users.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
How can you convince our listeners or Wellingtonians that you'll
be able to work with people with different ideas than yours?
Around ak the council table. We know that there's going
to be a lot a strong green group in there. Again,
how are you going to be able to work with them?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Look, I think the key is as you supply proper information.
I think there's a lot of issues around the information
that the councilors are dealing with. I think they don't
get together enough and they don't talk to each other.
I can deal with anyone. I can speak to anyone. Obviously,
the decisions will get out of that will still depend
on other people's leanings and views. But hopefully, you know,
if everyone's interest is purely in the best interests of Wellington,
then we had good conversations.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
We have individual views that will be so different to
you and so hard for you to swallow. I mean,
how how are you you not You're you're not educating
me on how you're going to sort that out?
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Well, I think I think reality is everyone is going
to have that issue because everyone comes from some leaning
of either side or centralist or whatever. So you're always
going to have those issues. We can have different views.
The key is that we've got to get enough good
counsels on the council so that we can make good
decisions from there on in. We've got to deal with
whatever's throw in our way and make the best decisions
we possibly can.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
In a perfect world, would you like to see the
politics out of it?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I don't think there's any room for politics. Every single
decision should be made in the best interest of Valentonian's
full stop.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
If I was going to ask you if you think
that Andrew Little, who's the front runner, We're not going
to try and you know the polls are saying he's
the front runner. Andrew Little, if he was going to
be it would be a better mayor than Tory Farno.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
What would you say, how would you vote for out
of the two?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I think I think realistically they both have exactly the
same direction for our city. I don't think we'll see
any different direction with Andrew, but we'll see a hell
of a lot less chaos. So if you go you
want less chaos, which most of us would like, I
would probably say Andrew would be better than Tory. But
it does represent exactly the same direction. It's still always
going to be double rate, double digit rate increases, and
it's still going to be a city that's going backwards.
(15:23):
So I don't think we should vote for either of
them if we had the option.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Who's going to be your number two?
Speaker 4 (15:27):
I actually don't know, Nick, because first of all, I
don't know who the breakup of the council will be.
But I'll be actually seeking advice from people who know
better than me of the best person with that role.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
No, I meant number two on your voting.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
List, oh number two on them. I know I was
thinking way ahead of that. To be honest, I've already
voted and I've put a couple of independent second and third,
but I'm not going to name them because the key
is that we vote for two or three independence, because
that's where STV has its strength. I mean, I mean
you talked about the polls before, yes, and I mean we've.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Had this argument on the street, right, you know, because
I publicly said that I'm only a vote for one
for the mayoralty, and you think that's a mistake. Explained
to our listeners why my idea. And I haven't voted
yet because I haven't made up my mind. You know
why I should only vote for one person?
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Okay, So if you've got two or three people that
you could tolerate more than another person, So.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
What happens if I can't tolerate anyone, Well.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
In that case, just vote one. But the problem is
if you vote one and that person's knocked out, your
voter vote is lost. So where STV has its strength
is if your first options not chosen as the weakest
of the last three or four people, your second person
gets your vote. And then if that person's not strong
enough your third day. So STV can work massively in
favor of Independence, and I think it still leaves a
(16:37):
lot of room for this result not to be one
that people are being told is going to be the result,
because STV means at the moment Andrew's polling around thirty percent.
That means seventy percent of people are not voting for him.
On those numbers, we're only thirty one percent of people
to put three of the top Independence in any order
they like, and the strongest one could potentially get all
those votes in beat in bet Andrew. And that's where
(16:59):
this election is not over by a country mile. You
don't believe it, but hell no, I seriously think I've
got a really good chance. What I do need I
need people to pick if they've got that orange envelope
sitting on the counter, to pick it up, fill it
in with some good choices and put it in a
little orange box.
Speaker 3 (17:15):
Do their bit.
Speaker 4 (17:15):
Because I've spent nine months campaigning pretty damn hard on this.
I've probably put ninety five per cent of my time
in energy into campaigning. I put twenty five thousand dollars
of my own money into this. Just simply because I
believe we can make change. All I'm asking for that
your listeners to do is to make sure they vote,
Get out there, vote.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
What will it tell you? And I believe I'm going
to be right on this. What is it going to
tell you? When the voting numbers come out and they're
very low?
Speaker 4 (17:40):
I think that'll be partly because the press have not
done a very good job, but they've sold it. Andrew
Little is the only person that's on the ballot box.
I mean, if you think of yourself, how many times
would you have mentioned his name versus mine? Two hundred
to one, three hundred to one. So we created this
environment where people think my vote's not going to count.
Your vote will count or very well could make a
massive difference. And even if we get the wrong mayor,
(18:02):
we do need to make sure the counselors are a
strong council. So whatever you do, sure we vote, because
this is our opportunity to take our city back.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
Right.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Last thirty seconds, forty seconds. I'm an undecided voter. Tell
me why I should vote Kyle Tiffan Barker come before
next Saturday.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, okay, So.
Speaker 4 (18:20):
Literally, I am probably the most passionate about our city.
Of any of the people that are standing, I have
probably the best understanding of how our city operates as
a whole, having run a business from startup to being
a manufacturer, an importer, a distributor, a wholesaler. So I
understand a lot about what we go through as a business.
But I also understand what we go through as a
(18:41):
lifelong Wenningtonian. I understand we're becoming unaffordable, and that's my
driving force. So I actually care about Wellingtonian's more than
anyone else that's standing. And I don't have an ego
that's going to basically stop me from taking good advice
from a whole lot of different people. And that's becoming
a city that listens in a city actually that will
actually help insupport people.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
You said before that you would resign if you didn't
achieve the things that you wanted to achieve. Will you
come on this show once a month previous me as
have done and actually front to the people.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
And you can ask me whatever you like. I will
always give you an a sci answer. I've said that
to you before and it's still storing stream.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
And you really believe you've got a chance.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
I really believe I have a really good chance.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Good on you all the very very best. Thank you,
thank you for coming in and speaking to us. And
you do make very good ice cream.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
Thank you mate, it's glad.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
What's the different It's not much ice cream for it.
You still put it a cone.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
To the market, tiff and barkat who cares?
Speaker 3 (19:36):
It's the one will tea and a lot of a
lot of letters after it.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Yeah, I had to explain to someone I love telling
you the story yesterday you said, this guy stopped me
in the street. He says, you've got that guy on
the show tomorrow. I said, how did you did? You're
you're taking the pea out of me because that's how
I used to pronounce his name as well.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, but who cares?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Really?
Speaker 4 (19:55):
I mean, I'm not I'm not that vain that I
need you to get my name right. All I need
you to do is put it one next to the
carl and the tea thing with a lot more letters.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, thank you for covering it.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Great to see you again.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Good luck For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills.
Listen live to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine
am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,
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