Andrew Little: former Labour leader on his bid to run for mayor of Wellington

Former Labour leader Andrew Little's feeling confident about his odds as he announces a bid to run for mayor of Wellington.

He made the announcement this morning - and explained that the capital's in a fragile place and needs strong leadership.

Little says he's spoken to people and found that the council has become 'directionless'.

"I've just had so many people from across the spectrum and from so many different sort of backgrounds approaching me...I thought I had to think about this again - and I thought I do have a set of skills that can help."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good afternoon. Wellington's worst kept secret is out. Former
labor leader Andrew Little wants to become the city's man.
He's with us now, Andrew, Helloa, why on earth do
you want to do this?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah? Look, it wasn't what I wanted to do. At
the end of last year, when I was first approached
about it, I was quite happy being a lawyer, quite
enjoying it, quite enjoying being out of the public limelight.
But as time has gone on and I've seen a
number of issues, the airport Sheese issue, the failure to
even put in a bid for a regional deal with
the central government, and a number of other things, and

(00:32):
just talking to people, it's become pretty apparent that the
councilors have become somewhat directionless. And probably in the last
three or four weeks, I've just had so many people
from across the spectrum and from so many different set
of backgrounds approaching me. I thought, actually, I do have
to think about this again, and I thought, actually, I
do have a set of skills that I think can help,

(00:54):
and so I made the decision to put mate in
the ring.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Do you reckon you can win it?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yeah? I'm comfort I can look the ever since the
premature disclosure last week and certainly after today, just the
overwhelming feedback I've had from again from a whole variety
of people. And when I say that, you know, in
the political speeture, it's not just the labor people, it's
national people. It's Greens saying to me, we do need
to change and we need somebody who can bring things

(01:22):
together and give us a bit of direction and have
a serious relationship with central government, which I'm coming from
I'm capable of doing.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Okay, so what would you do about the Golden Mile?
Would you scrap it?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
No? I wouldn't scrap it. The contracts have been let
for the first part that's can have to go. My
concern is that right now the Wellington economy is pretty fragile,
particularly for retail and hospitality, and the project will cause
major disruptions. I'm of the view that we just those
businesses just cannot absorb that level of disruption. We don't

(01:54):
have to do this straight away, we don't have to
do it quickly. We can do it over a longer
period of time. So I say, let's RePhase this in
a way that there's as less disruptive as possible, but
you know, allows the central Willington economy to get it
on its feet again as we get through these difficult times.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Okay, so you do it, but you just do it
a little bit more slowly. What about cycle ways? Would
you keep plowing yourhead with that massive cycle way project?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Look what, I'm not going to touch any of the
existing cycle ways. And look and principle the cycle ways
are important because it means people on bikes can travel
safely around the city. I do question the implementation of
some of them. I go look at Molesworth Street. It's
now down to one lane. I'm not sure how useful
major arterial route that gets you onto the motorways and
to the western suburbs is doing that.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
And likewise, what to do Andrew? Because that is I mean,
that is horrific. What's happened to Molesworth Street? So what
would you do?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah? So I want to look at it. I mean,
I'm not a fan of spending a whole lot more
money to kind of turn it all back again. I
do want to look at the rest of the program,
and I don't want to that happened.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
If you were the mirror at the time, would you
let that project go ahead in the way that it.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Has no This is the way I think that part
of the failure has been. I don't think this is
a council that listens. And I know it does a
lot of consultation. The comment I've had so many times
for people to say, yeah, look, people turn up and
they have the clipboards and all the rest of them.
We talk to them, but nothing ever changes. And I
think what people feel now is that this is a
counsel that sort of goes through the motions, but it

(03:20):
doesn't listen. And I would want to lead a counsel
that says, right, we're going to do something and it's
going to be big, tell us how you think it
should go, tell us you know what the impact will
be on you, and let's adapt it. Let's make sure
that we are putting people on the back food and
causing congestion and disruption and all the rest of it.
Because I'm confident there are ways of doing these things

(03:40):
that can meet multiple objectives. But we've got to take
people with us, because I don't think people have had
a chance to sort of get into it.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yep, Andrew, listen, goodluck and thank you. Very much for
talking to us, Sir Andrew Little, Wellington's mayoral candidate. For
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