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September 22, 2024 6 mins

OPINION

What a week Tory Whanau has had.

It all started with our regular monthly catch-up on Tuesday. I asked the mayor if she was struggling with the cost of high rates and if she felt the pinch so many of us in Wellington are feeling. 

Her answer was pretty clear. 

"I've just sold my car recently, to kind of help pay the bills. I walk to work again, my mortgage rates have doubled in the last few years.

"I'm feeling the crunch as well," the mayor told us. 

Just for the record, Whanau earns $190,000 a year. She won $1.4 million in Lotto in 2002 - and she made us think she'd sold her car to help pay the bills.  

It made headlines, then the news cycle moved on. 

But then the Mayor appeared on Q&A with Jack Tame yesterday, breathing even more life into the story. 

"Did you need to sell the car to pay the bills?" asks Jack Tame.

"No, I actually didn't," says Tory Whanau.

"It's a shame because it was taken out of context. It was an hour-long interview, you get a bit relaxed." 

At best, that's a bad attempt to spin her way out of it. At worst, it's a straight-up lie. 

To say that those comments were taken out of context is rubbish. Tory said it. The comments are clear as day. She was struggling and she sold the car. 

What can be taken out of context from that? 

Then, when asked if she had misled people, Whanau said the interview was too long. 

"No I didn't mislead people," Tory says.

"Actually what's happened is I was probably very generous with my time when it came to an interview.

"An entire hour for a radio show once a month is probably a bit much and you just kind of, tend to let things slip." 

For the record, mayors of Wellington have been interviewed on Newstalk ZB's local morning show for as long as I can remember.

It’s called accountability. It's called fronting up to the public. It's called a basic expectation of being the Mayor. 

I have always said I like Tory. I think she is a nice person and she has always been good to me. We get along well. 

But I've also said I don’t think she’s up to the job. And I don't think she's getting the right advice from the people around her. 

And if anything proves it, it was her performance on Q&A on Sunday. What a train wreck. 

In the interview, Whanau laughed and didn’t understand some questions. She flip-flopped too - her office later clarified she did sell her car in part to help with mortgage payments. 

At points, it felt like Jack Tame sat there completely bewildered, with this look in his eye that said 'what on earth is going on'.

Initially, Whanau told Tame she did not expect to have enough support around the council table to sell the city's stake in Wellington Airport shares.

But then she seemed to change her mind a few minutes later, and her response was to laugh like a naughty student being caught smoking behind the bike sheds. 

"That could have been scandalous," she giggled. 

I seriously think this interview might go down as the one point that changes things for her leadership.

The moment where the biggest nail gets slammed into the coffin.

Yesterday Tory also admitted a re-election bid next year might be tough.

She's right - if voters turn out. If they don't, she's a hot favourite.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
There's only one topic to talk about this morning, isn't it?
What a weekend under scrutiny of the media wanting to
meor Tori Farno's head. We had our usual monthly catch
up on Tuesday and if you haven't caught up with it.
I asked the mayor if she was struggling with the
cost of love, of the high rates and the cost
of living, and she said this, but do you actually
feel what we as Wellingtonians are feeling right now?

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Look, I don't want to downplay the privilege that I have,
right so, I am the mayor of the city. I
have a house and I'm very I'm very thankful for that. However,
I've just sold my car recently to kind of help
pay the bills, and I walked to work again, and
my mortgage rates have doubled in in the last few years.

(01:00):
So I'm feeling the crunch as well.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
Feeling the crunch. Just for the record, Mea earns one
hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year. She won one
point four million at lotto in two thousand and two,
and she makes well. She tried to make us think
that she sold her car to pay the bills, and
she was like some of us that are doing it tough.
It made the headlines. And then the mayor appeared on

(01:28):
Q and A with Jack Tame yesterday and this is
what she had to say.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
I mean, did you need to actually sell the car
to pay the bills?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
No, I actually didn't. It's a shame because it was
taken out of context. It was an hour long interview.
You get a bit relaxed. I mean the main reason
actually was because it's a walkable city. I don't need
a car living in the city center.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
So you know, that would have been one of the
few things, at best a bad attempt to spin her
way out of it, at worst a straight up lie.
And it's only you, the voters, who can make that decision.
But to say that those comments were taken out of
context as rubbish. You said it, Tori, You heard our listeners.

(02:14):
The comments were clear as they you were struggling, you
sold the car. What can be taken out of context
from that? Then she tried her best to throw me
under the bus in Q and A yesterday. It was
my fault. Apparently, Apparently I made her feel too relaxed.
Apparently the interview was too long.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Did you mislead people with that comment?

Speaker 3 (02:39):
No, I didn't mis lead people. I think actually what
has happened is I was probably very generous with my
time when it came to an interview, like an entire
hour for a radio show once a month is probably
a bit march, and you just kind of tend.

Speaker 4 (02:53):
To live and you raised it though right, he raised it,
but you were the one who raised the like selling
your car in order to add the bells.

Speaker 3 (03:03):
I mean.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
From the outside that it just looks like if it
wasn't true, that just looks.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Like a lie.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
No, no, no, no, no, I think I think I just
I think we're focusing way too much on just an
offhand comment.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
That he was me. By the way, Jack must have
just forgotten my name or Tory might have conveniently forgotten
my name, But that he that they keept talking about
was me. For the record, mayors of the city have
done this show monthly for as long as I can remember,
and a long long time before I was the host.
It's the first complaint I we have heard about the

(03:38):
slot being too long. It's called accountability, it's called fronting
up to the public, it's called basic expectations of being
a mayor. And according to a poll, our mayor is
the most unpopular mayor in the country. Need I remind
you of that. I have always said that I like Tory.

(04:00):
I think she is a nice person. I have always
been always got on well, and she's always been good
to me. We get along. But I've always said, and
I've always stuck to this, that she's not up to
the job and I don't believe she's helped by the
people around her. Always said that as well, and it
is anything to prove it was her performance on Q
and A yesterday that was a straight out train wreck.

(04:24):
And if a bad week couldn't get any worse from
the mayor, it wasn't just the sale of her car
that made the headlines. In the interview, Tory laughed, flip
flopped and didn't understand the questions at points that Jack
Taime just sat there completely bewildered with his look in
his eyes that said, what the hell's going on here?

(04:44):
Initially said she said. Tory said she did not expect
to have enough support to sell the airport shares, which
meant the long term plan would not be progressed, but
then seemed to change her mind a few minutes later,
and her response was to laugh and giggle like a
naughty skill girl been caught smoking behind the bike shed.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Okay, so I thin we're one hundred percent clear on this.
So at the start of the interview, I asked you
if you thought you would have support to sell the
shares and pass the long term place and you said no, no.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
I thought you were asking the other question in reverse.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 4 (05:18):
Okay, okay, no, just can you totally fail us? So
we're hundred recently? You think you will have support? Y, yes,
I do. I apologize, right, that's the exact opposite.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
I'm sorry I missed. I took in your question in
a different way and that has could have been quite scandalous.

Speaker 4 (05:36):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
She said, we'll know for sure whether the shares will
be sold on October the tenth, but she's pretty confident
the long term plan would become unviable if the shares
did not get the vote to sell. But wait, if
it gets worse, it can keep getting worse. The Tory
the train wreck interview was one of the lead stories
on the One News last night, displaying her incompetence for

(06:03):
the country to see. I seriously thought, think this Jack
Tayme interview might go down. It's one point that changes
things for Tory, the point we look back in years
to come, the point where the biggest nail gets slammed
into her coffin. If she was the most unpopular mayor
in the country three months ago, you can only just
imagine where she is now. If there's still people in

(06:24):
this city that are sitting on the fence about her leadership,
I think their views might have been changed and might
have been filmed, firmed up right now and on film.
Yesterday was also the first time Tory has omitted a
reelection bid. Next time might be tough. Now. I think
she's still hot. Favorite work that one out. I think

(06:48):
no matter what Tory does, she's going to get in
the next election. Why because we don't vote.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
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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