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April 28, 2025 7 mins

OPINION

Tory Whanau has said no.

She's said no to standing for Wellington mayor for the three terms she always said she’d run for. She's out; she's thrown in the towel.

We won't get the exciting election campaign of Tory Whanau v Andrew Little, which I must say I was looking forward to.

And I’ll be honest; I wanted her to run. I wanted to know if Wellington as a city really believes in the green idealisms she promotes.

This election was going to tell me whether it was a flash in the pan or whether it was real. But Tory has pulled out.

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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.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said, b.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
I am announcing that I will not be seeking a
second term as Mayor of Wellington, and now having Andrew
Little in the race, I've decided I'd like to step
aside to give him a clear runway to win the maryalty.
I think this is actually a better outcome for everyone involved,
certainly for the city.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Good morning and welcome well I'm not going to start
the show this morning by talking about the weather. There's
only one piece of news that we all want to
talk about this morning. Tory Farno says no, and we
all know no means no, no to standing for her

(01:02):
three terms, as she always indicated she would do. In fact,
she said no to standing this year. No election campaign
of Farno versus Little, which I was looking forward to,
and I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why I
was looking forward to it, and I'll be honest. I

(01:25):
wanted her to run. I wanted to know if Wellington
as the city really believed in the Green idealisms. This
election was going to tell me whether it was just
a flash in the pan or real It was a

(01:46):
real test for us as Wellingtonians. But Torre's pulled out.
She's done, She's reversed her previous decision to run again.
What I can't work out is this was an announced
on the same day that she stood on the corner

(02:08):
of Courtney Place with her brand new Bunning shovel, digging
up the ground to celebrate the start of the Golden
mir work. Clearly, the hole she dug was simply too
big and she couldn't climb out of it. Did she
see the riding on the wall? She clearly realized she

(02:30):
wasn't going to win, or she wasn't going to win easily.
She didn't want the fight, which disappoints me. I already
always had Tory down as a fighter. Tory, who we
are hoping to have on the show, shortly said it
was a better outcome for everybody involved. She wants to

(02:56):
run for the male reward as a counselor, so she
wants to stay and is hoping to stay on the council.
She also told the Herald this morning she'd like to
be a government minister one day. You can make your
own mind up on that. She said she believes in
the city, but most importantly she wants to work with

(03:20):
Mana Fenawa to serve her people. But for now, well
shortly she's gone. Tory has had one term as mayor
and that will be it. Now. There's been rumors around
Toy pulling out for a while. Firstly, apparently she was

(03:40):
going to pull out to let justin less they have
a free crack at it. And when that never worked out,
Andrew Little stepped in out of the doorway and the
rest is history. So now all we can do is
reflect on her legacy and what a legacy it will be.
She will always talk about the Golden Mile and her

(04:02):
ambitions to get this underway. She will always mention the
amount of work that she did with our water issues.
She'll mention continuously the fight for social housing and not
to forget cycleways. Cycleways split this city in more ways
than one. But that's her and what she'll think. She

(04:24):
left the city Wellington as a city. You and I
will reflect on some more colorful aspects of her leadership.
The drinking remember Faro omitted being a little bit tipsy
when she left the Old Quarter restaurant without paying her
one hundred and forty dollars bill, And of course the
supposed you know who I am comment, who will forget

(04:47):
her bringing her dog to the council office? That was
an absolute no note. And in November twenty twenty three,
she publicly acknowledged having an alcohol problem following a drunken
incident at a bar. Then that interview, that interview on
this show that made national news. Farno, who earns one

(05:10):
hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year, mentioned she was
selling her car to help pay her bills. She knew
how tough we were all doing it. She later admitted
the car had been sold months earlier and her comments
were taken out of context by me apparently, But then
the rest of the mainstream media picked up on it

(05:30):
as well, So it wasn't only me. I just asked
the question. But that was her personal legacy. What's her
political legacy? Well, she pushed the terrible Reading Cinema deal.
It was going to cost Wellington City Council thirty two
million dollars to buy the land under the cinemas. Thank
god that failed. She advocated for the sale of Wellington

(05:50):
City Council's thirty four percent stake in the Wellington International Airport,
valued it approximately forty four hundred and ninety two million
that failed, Thank goodness. Then she got her bunning shovel
out yesterday to dig up the Golden Mile. But interesting,
most of the contracts still haven't been signed and it

(06:13):
might never go ahead fully. And I think it's fair
to say most people in this city fair Wellington has
gone backwards in the last three years. Is that her
legacy personally and listens to this show. No that I've
always had a good relationship with Toy. I like her.

(06:35):
She cut her connections with me and this show. She
felt it wasn't talking to her people, and she probably
thought I was too tough on her. But we've always
got along. I respected her, and while I didn't like
a lot of what she did as mayor, she was
a character and I did like the fact that we

(06:57):
had a character as a mayor. We are a city
of characters. Unfortunately for us, I went too far and
it's we as a that he started to be the
butt of everybody's jokes. Easy one liner for comedians, easier
one line for media commentators. Have a crack at Wellington,

(07:17):
have a crack at their council, have a crack at
their mayor, her decision yesterday is not a good thing
for Wellington. You know why why I'm saddened by it
is that we won't have an exciting race unless someone
steps up. It means the city is guaranteed a new direction,

(07:39):
which a lot of us would agree with. Some of
us have wanted for a long time, but we need
a race.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills. Listen live
to news talks There'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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