April 28, 2025 • 9 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.
Whanau told Nick Mills she had to consider what was going to deliver the best outcomes for Wellington, and that meant shifting to running for council.
She says she’ll still very much be there fighting for Wellington.
Whanau says that while she does have a few regrets from her term as Mayor, she’s mostly proud of what she’s done.
When asked to rate her performance, she gave herself a high score.
“If I look back on what I campaigned on, what I said I would deliver to the city, you know, I’d give myself a 9/10.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining us on the show this morning is Wellington Mayor
Tory Farno. Good morning, Tory.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm good, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thank you, it's good to talk to you again.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh gosh, that was a quod. I'm going to ask
one one first question. It's a very simple question.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Why Well, actually it was. There were two reasons, so
you know, One, yesterday I launched the start of the
Courtney Place for Vitalization project, so that was a key
milestone in my campaign. So that including water suck aways,
bus lanes and housing, you know, those are on full
(00:56):
train now, so I knew that I could leave this
term feeling really proud of my achievements. And Two, you know,
Andrew Little is a really great candidate. He has a
lot of experience, he has a lot of respect. I
look up to him and he's certainly someone I could
have seen his mess. So I've stepped aside to clear
the way for him for the election and will still
(01:17):
run for counsel for the Marty ward.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's lots of rumors floating around that the Green Party
had pulled or about to pull their backing of you?
Is that? Can you confirm or deny that?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh, that's completely untrue. So they backed me. This was
my decision. And then I told them on Thursday the
new plan and said I would prefer an endorsement for
the Marty Ward instead, and they got that through incredibly quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So at that celebration yesterday, you looked incredibly relaxed, incredibly
incredibly excited. Why did you not just announce it there
and then?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Oh? Because you know that was official council business. And
I didn't want to take away from the importance of
that moment because you know, there were a lot of
there must have been about forty of us. There a
lot of staff who played an important part in the
Golden Mile and the design and so forth. I don't
want to take that moment away from them and make
it about my campaign.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I kind of get it, but don't get it. I
thought you were a fighter.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
M Well, I am. That's why I'm running for council again.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But why wouldn't you run against Andrew Little? Did you
think you'll lose? I mean, did you not have the fight?
And you I took you as a fighter no.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I knew it could have been one with a really
strong campaign, But for me, I was like, you know,
I think council would be great with the both of
us on it. That he wasn't running for council and
he had no plans to, so I kind of just
had to put that aside and go, you know, what's
going to deliver the best outcomes for Wellington. You know
(02:55):
he'll do a great job. I'll do a great job.
It's merely just changing the role. I will still very
much be here fighting for our city on council.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There have ever been any talk between you and Andrew
Little about maybe a suggestion that you be deputy men?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
No, no, no no. So I did talk to him
last week about my plan, just to kind of give
him a heads up. He was very gracious about it,
but we made it pretty clear that any sort of
discussions about roles and policies are very much up to
him and could probably come up later down the track.
I mean, I'm yet to see what policy commitments he's
(03:32):
going to make. That's probably more important to me, but
I will say early on, hey, feel free to consider
me when you know, if he's elected next year, that'd
be great, but the city, you know, the best stuck
until the city is much more important.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
As it stands right now. We know, well, we suspect
that we know because we've been told that the contract
for the Golden Miles been signed for the intersection of Cambridge,
Kent and Courtney. Is that correct? Yes?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Will you the top of Courtney? Yes?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Okay? Will you? Could you push through signing of the contracts,
knowing that Andrew Little has already come out and said
that he will not screw up any contracts, would you
sign the contracts between now and your and your end
of the election. Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I will continue to do that because that is a
key project I've promised to deliver on in my campaign
and during this term. I have heard him talk about,
you know, rephasing parts of the Golden Mile. I believe
he was talking about Lampton Key and that's not an
area we're focusing on at the moment. We're just looking
at Courtney place. Spoken to him pushing through?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Have you spoken to him about the idea of signing
those contracts for Courtney Courtney plays?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Not yet? No?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay? What if he says to you, Tori, can you
just hold off on that until we get a new
council and a new mayor. Would you be prepared to
do that?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
No, I wouldn't because he's not an elected member. He's
merely campaigning. And I have a duty as mayor to
do what I was elected to do and what I
said I would.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Wow, that's a pretty big decision.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It is. But as you say, I'm a fighter. I'm
fighting for those things that I believe will make our
city better. Courtney Place needs the work to be done.
It's in a state and I know that this will
help revitalize this city.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You know this.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You know how passionate I am. We've had many arguments
over it. I'm committed to this. And Andrew isn't on
council yet, so if he's going to make any demands,
he'll just have to wait.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Okay, what are your regrets? What's your biggest regret?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I think I've said this before, but you know, a
couple of things I like to reflect on. Perhaps if
I'd done another term, if I've done a term as
a councilor first, you know, I would have learned a
lot about local body before becoming the mayor. But you know,
in a weird way, I'm doing it back to front,
and I still think that's going to work out quite well,
you know, trusting my political political instincts more by you know,
(06:05):
supporting a couple projects I normally wouldn't have. But other
than that, I'm actually mainly proud of what I've done
this term. I feel like I'm going to end on
a high and again I just want to remind people
I'm still running for council. It's just a different role, right.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
How do you think Wellingtonians will remember you as their mayor?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I like to think that they would remember mayor as
the one who started transformation. So we're midway through that
crucial part where a city and transition. It'll be finished
in a few years under Andrew's term if he's elected,
and perhaps that's what hell be remembered for. But I
don't care about things like that. I care about the
(06:48):
city improving.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
If you did care about the city improving, why wouldn't
you just hold fire on the Golden Mile until a
new council and a new mayor could make that decision.
He's clearly not for it in the short term, and
a lot of people aren't.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But a lot of people are, and as we've debated
time and time again. Nick, this is a project that
I know will improve Wellington City. It's one that I've
fought for, and that if we just pause it hop
you know, push it down, kick the can down the road,
it becomes more expensive. I like to remind people that
if this project hadn't been relitigated time and time again,
could have been finished by now. I'm not going to
(07:26):
make that risk.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You said to the Herald this morning that you still
have ambitions for the Beehive. Tell us about that, not
right now.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So I still want to do like I committed to do,
doing two or three terms here at council. Let us
still actually my goal, whether that's counselor or mayor. You know,
I'm a politician. I love legislation and policy and events.
So it makes sense that later on I would make
a move to Parliament, but I have absolutely no plan
(07:59):
to do that anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
If you are going to rake yourself out of ten
your scorecard, what would you what would you rate yourself?
Would you out of one to ten, ten being the
best mayor ever and one being not that great? Where
would you put yourself?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, if I look back at what I campaigned on,
what I said I would deliver to the city. You know,
I'd give myself a nine out of ten.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, well that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
You know, apart from apart from light rail, everything I
campaigned on is in train and I'm really proud of that.
You know, this council's delivered the most investment in water
one point eight billion dollars. That's three times the previous council.
We've enabled more homes, We've delivered more cycle ways, more
bus lanes, you know, really good stuff. Yes, we're a
(08:55):
city in transition. There's a lot of construction happening, but
you know, people have to see that as progress. I
know people get frustrated. That's normal changes, you know, frustrating
for pre but again, in as little as three years time,
this city is going to be looking quite different.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I will give you my predictions on what the city
is going to look like in three years. If they
carry on with the Golden Mile and carry on with it,
I think that it'll be ten years. And I've had
financial experts say twenty years before it comes right. Are
you prepared to put that on you Yes?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I am so, and I've put that on my Maril
too many times and again if we go by your
suggestion and pausing the project time and time again, of
course it'll take ten years, but I'm not going to
let that happen.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Tori Fano, thank you very much for joining us on
the show. I appreciate you being upfront and coming back
on the show to have a chat and good luck
for the next six months.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Thank you. Nick.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine to am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk SEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Joining us on the show this morning is Wellington Mayor
Tory Farno. Good morning, Tory.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I'm good, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thank you, it's good to talk to you again.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Oh gosh, that was a quod. I'm going to ask
one one first question. It's a very simple question.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Why Well, actually it was. There were two reasons, so
you know, One, yesterday I launched the start of the
Courtney Place for Vitalization project, so that was a key
milestone in my campaign. So that including water suck aways,
bus lanes and housing, you know, those are on full
(00:56):
train now, so I knew that I could leave this
term feeling really proud of my achievements. And Two, you know,
Andrew Little is a really great candidate. He has a
lot of experience, he has a lot of respect. I
look up to him and he's certainly someone I could
have seen his mess. So I've stepped aside to clear
the way for him for the election and will still
(01:17):
run for counsel for the Marty ward.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's lots of rumors floating around that the Green Party
had pulled or about to pull their backing of you?
Is that? Can you confirm or deny that?
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Oh, that's completely untrue. So they backed me. This was
my decision. And then I told them on Thursday the
new plan and said I would prefer an endorsement for
the Marty Ward instead, and they got that through incredibly quickly.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
So at that celebration yesterday, you looked incredibly relaxed, incredibly
incredibly excited. Why did you not just announce it there
and then?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Oh? Because you know that was official council business. And
I didn't want to take away from the importance of
that moment because you know, there were a lot of
there must have been about forty of us. There a
lot of staff who played an important part in the
Golden Mile and the design and so forth. I don't
want to take that moment away from them and make
it about my campaign.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I kind of get it, but don't get it. I
thought you were a fighter.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
M Well, I am. That's why I'm running for council again.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
But why wouldn't you run against Andrew Little? Did you
think you'll lose? I mean, did you not have the fight?
And you I took you as a fighter no.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I knew it could have been one with a really
strong campaign, But for me, I was like, you know,
I think council would be great with the both of
us on it. That he wasn't running for council and
he had no plans to, so I kind of just
had to put that aside and go, you know, what's
going to deliver the best outcomes for Wellington. You know
(02:55):
he'll do a great job. I'll do a great job.
It's merely just changing the role. I will still very
much be here fighting for our city on council.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
There have ever been any talk between you and Andrew
Little about maybe a suggestion that you be deputy men?
Speaker 3 (03:12):
No, no, no no. So I did talk to him
last week about my plan, just to kind of give
him a heads up. He was very gracious about it,
but we made it pretty clear that any sort of
discussions about roles and policies are very much up to
him and could probably come up later down the track.
I mean, I'm yet to see what policy commitments he's
(03:32):
going to make. That's probably more important to me, but
I will say early on, hey, feel free to consider
me when you know, if he's elected next year, that'd
be great, but the city, you know, the best stuck
until the city is much more important.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
As it stands right now. We know, well, we suspect
that we know because we've been told that the contract
for the Golden Miles been signed for the intersection of Cambridge,
Kent and Courtney. Is that correct? Yes?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Will you the top of Courtney? Yes?
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Okay? Will you? Could you push through signing of the contracts,
knowing that Andrew Little has already come out and said
that he will not screw up any contracts, would you
sign the contracts between now and your and your end
of the election. Yes.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I will continue to do that because that is a
key project I've promised to deliver on in my campaign
and during this term. I have heard him talk about,
you know, rephasing parts of the Golden Mile. I believe
he was talking about Lampton Key and that's not an
area we're focusing on at the moment. We're just looking
at Courtney place. Spoken to him pushing through?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Have you spoken to him about the idea of signing
those contracts for Courtney Courtney plays?
Speaker 3 (04:50):
Not yet? No?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay? What if he says to you, Tori, can you
just hold off on that until we get a new
council and a new mayor. Would you be prepared to
do that?
Speaker 3 (05:00):
No, I wouldn't because he's not an elected member. He's
merely campaigning. And I have a duty as mayor to
do what I was elected to do and what I
said I would.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Wow, that's a pretty big decision.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
It is. But as you say, I'm a fighter. I'm
fighting for those things that I believe will make our
city better. Courtney Place needs the work to be done.
It's in a state and I know that this will
help revitalize this city.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
You know this.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
You know how passionate I am. We've had many arguments
over it. I'm committed to this. And Andrew isn't on
council yet, so if he's going to make any demands,
he'll just have to wait.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Okay, what are your regrets? What's your biggest regret?
Speaker 3 (05:43):
I think I've said this before, but you know, a
couple of things I like to reflect on. Perhaps if
I'd done another term, if I've done a term as
a councilor first, you know, I would have learned a
lot about local body before becoming the mayor. But you know,
in a weird way, I'm doing it back to front,
and I still think that's going to work out quite well,
you know, trusting my political political instincts more by you know,
(06:05):
supporting a couple projects I normally wouldn't have. But other
than that, I'm actually mainly proud of what I've done
this term. I feel like I'm going to end on
a high and again I just want to remind people
I'm still running for council. It's just a different role, right.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
How do you think Wellingtonians will remember you as their mayor?
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I like to think that they would remember mayor as
the one who started transformation. So we're midway through that
crucial part where a city and transition. It'll be finished
in a few years under Andrew's term if he's elected,
and perhaps that's what hell be remembered for. But I
don't care about things like that. I care about the
(06:48):
city improving.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
If you did care about the city improving, why wouldn't
you just hold fire on the Golden Mile until a
new council and a new mayor could make that decision.
He's clearly not for it in the short term, and
a lot of people aren't.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
But a lot of people are, and as we've debated
time and time again. Nick, this is a project that
I know will improve Wellington City. It's one that I've
fought for, and that if we just pause it hop
you know, push it down, kick the can down the road,
it becomes more expensive. I like to remind people that
if this project hadn't been relitigated time and time again,
could have been finished by now. I'm not going to
(07:26):
make that risk.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
You said to the Herald this morning that you still
have ambitions for the Beehive. Tell us about that, not
right now.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
So I still want to do like I committed to do,
doing two or three terms here at council. Let us
still actually my goal, whether that's counselor or mayor. You know,
I'm a politician. I love legislation and policy and events.
So it makes sense that later on I would make
a move to Parliament, but I have absolutely no plan
(07:59):
to do that anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
If you are going to rake yourself out of ten
your scorecard, what would you what would you rate yourself?
Would you out of one to ten, ten being the
best mayor ever and one being not that great? Where
would you put yourself?
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Well, if I look back at what I campaigned on,
what I said I would deliver to the city. You know,
I'd give myself a nine out of ten.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, well that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
You know, apart from apart from light rail, everything I
campaigned on is in train and I'm really proud of that.
You know, this council's delivered the most investment in water
one point eight billion dollars. That's three times the previous council.
We've enabled more homes, We've delivered more cycle ways, more
bus lanes, you know, really good stuff. Yes, we're a
(08:55):
city in transition. There's a lot of construction happening, but
you know, people have to see that as progress. I
know people get frustrated. That's normal changes, you know, frustrating
for pre but again, in as little as three years time,
this city is going to be looking quite different.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
I will give you my predictions on what the city
is going to look like in three years. If they
carry on with the Golden Mile and carry on with it,
I think that it'll be ten years. And I've had
financial experts say twenty years before it comes right. Are
you prepared to put that on you Yes?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
I am so, and I've put that on my Maril
too many times and again if we go by your
suggestion and pausing the project time and time again, of
course it'll take ten years, but I'm not going to
let that happen.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Tori Fano, thank you very much for joining us on
the show. I appreciate you being upfront and coming back
on the show to have a chat and good luck
for the next six months.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
Thank you. Nick.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd be Wellington from nine to am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com