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April 28, 2025 6 mins

Tory Whanau is bowing out of Wellington's mayoral race. 

The incumbent's confirmed she'll instead stand for the council's Māori ward seat to give former Labour Leader Andrew Little a clear run. 

She says Little will do a good job, and she hopes people see her withdrawal as a gracious move. 

Little's been critical of Whanau, calling rate increases under her leadership "simply not acceptable". 

He told Ryan Bridge Whanau advised him before announcing her decision. 

A key focus of both the residents and candidates is Wellington's high rates, and Little says he wants to slow the rise.

He says a 35% increase over the next three years is simply not acceptable. 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In true Tory Faro style, the Wellington mayor this morning
performing one final massive flip flop after saying she would
run for reelection for the meyt She's u turned and
a planned media statement in Bargo till five o'clock this morning,
She's announced she'll instead run for a Mildi ward and
let Andrew Little take the top job.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
I know that he would do a really good job.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
I hope that people would see it as a gracious move.
I'm merely stepping aside because he really wants the role.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Of course, he's got to get elected first, but he's
with me this morning. Andrew, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Right, So you had a call I understand from Torri Farno.
What did she say.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Assuring me last week?

Speaker 3 (00:40):
She said that she had thought about it and that
she didn't want to contest mayorty. She had yet to
talk to a range of other people, but that's what
she said. I said, Look, you know, thanks for letting
me know. I'm not long for anything. So I wished
her all the best and that was really it.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
How would you describe her mayalty?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Look, she came in at the challenging time. I think
everybody would acknowledge that. I think she's She's done some
good things. I think one of the important things was
getting the zone changes for housing so we can actually
ready start to accelerate the high density housing that we need.
But look, it has been challenging for her and for everybody.

(01:24):
I think people see that I stepped up to be
candidate for me because I think a lot of people
have lost confidence in the council and we need to
restore their confidence of people can have confidence in the
city again, and businesses can go about their job.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
For a city that's lost a lot of work and workers.
So that's why I'm in the race.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm from Wellington. The big problem, I mean, you talk
to anyone down there, it's rates. I mean rates have
gone up twenty one percent in a year. They're going
up thirty five percent over the next three years. You've
got your regional council rates up twenty five percent? Are
you going to bring rates down?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Certainly want to slow the rise.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
I need to have a voice, look at executed what
has driven those rate increases.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
There is no It is simply not acceptable for rays
to increase.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
By my calculation, about thirty percent in the last two years.
A lot of that is I think council not getting
a grip on their own finance. As I look at
some of the things that have happened there, I think
there's there's some capitalist bending that has been.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Incurred on the basis that it's not spread over the
life of various assets.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
You look at things like the Wellington Town Hall, a
project that right from there the very beginning, was meant
to cost you know, thirty to forty million dollars, now
well over three hundred million dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
That suggests to me that people haven't got the eye
on the ball.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
No, and now we've got the now we've got the
golden mile. This is the latest iteration. And she's saying, oh,
I don't worry, it won't go over Bud. No one
believes it, Andrew. No one believes it. And you're not
stopping it. That's the problem. You're not coming in and
saying I'm going to cut this, I'm going to cut that.
I mean, what exactly are you going to cut or
over three years? Okay for you, No, it's not at all.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
No, I've just said that, I said that laid in
the interview.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
That's not acceptable at all, and it's it's it's one
of those things that's making Willington more unaffordable, not just
the housing, as things like rates as well. So I
will have a good look at the variety of projects
that are under way. What I have said is that
where there are contracts that are let I'm not going
to rip those up because that costs the countil more anyway.
But we're contracts aren't leaked for particular projects. Now is

(03:31):
not the time to be doing stuff that's disruptive for
what is quite a fragile business climate in Willington.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
So I am committed to doing all right.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
So phase one of the Golden Mile, they've got the
contract for that. Nothing beyond that. So you're saying you
wouldn't support anything Golden Mile beyond that Phase one.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I'm saying, stop it now.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
There's a lot of people say to me they think
that actually the Golden Mile stuff is in the long
term is a good thing. It just doesn't have tapped
right now and we just don't need the disruption.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
All right, that's good, that's good, that's definitive. That's contracts
that have been done now. Yes, anything beyond that the
Golden Mile, Andrew Little is saying no. And just to
be clear, the thirty five percent I was talking about,
that's over the next three years, So you were talking
about the last two So is thirty five percent over
the next three years acceptable to you?

Speaker 2 (04:22):
No, it's not no.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
And that that has that has to be refewed and
looked at and we need to take cost out.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
We just need to is twenty seven kilometers and new
cycle ways and priority bus lanes doubling from four to
eight kilometers, which Tory Faros says was one of her successes.
Is that a good or a bad thing for Wellington?

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, I think.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Enabling people who go about their work or what they
do their recreation on a bike and they can do
so safety is important. So I'm not opposed to cycle ways.
I think some of the implementation of them have been
but I don't agree with Moles Street, for example, being
reduced to one lane. I don't agree with the way
things have happened around the botanical gardens. There are a
lot of elderly people who have spoken to me, to

(05:08):
me they can't visit there now because they can't get
a pack.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
So I think some thought has to be gone on
to the way some of those are implemented.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Do I believe in safe lanes for cyclists, Yes, but
let's do it safely, very.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
Quickly before you go. The city deal. I know it
was a disaster because you know Wellington didn't apply. Is
there any way will you look to get some leniency
from the government so that you know you can get
one done?

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah? I cen it would make that a priority.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
I think I've got good relations with pretty much every
minister in office at the moment. I've always had good
relations with people across the aisle and I'd be surprised
if there wasn't a way that we can work with gavinall.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Right, Andrew Little, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for
coming on the program. Andrew Little, who will probably be
the Wellington mayor. He is the course of candidate at
this point. Tory Funo is out. For more from early
edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks. It'd
be from five am weekdays of the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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