Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Little: Former Labour Leader on his bid for Wellington Mayor, Tory Whanau bowing out

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Andrew Little: Former Labour Leader on his bid for Wellington Mayor, Tory Whanau bowing out · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: In true Tory Faro style, the Wellington mayor this morning
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: performing one final massive flip flop after saying she would
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: run for reelection for the meyt She's u turned and
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: a planned media statement in Bargo till five o'clock this morning,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: She's announced she'll instead run for a Mildi ward and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: let Andrew Little take the top job.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: I know that he would do a really good job.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: I hope that people would see it as a gracious move.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: I'm merely stepping aside because he really wants the role.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Of course, he's got to get elected first, but he's
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: with me this morning. Andrew, good morning.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: There you go.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Right, So you had a call I understand from Torri Farno.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What did she say.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Assuring me last week?
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: She said that she had thought about it and that
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: she didn't want to contest mayorty. She had yet to
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: talk to a range of other people, but that's what
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: she said. I said, Look, you know, thanks for letting
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: me know. I'm not long for anything. So I wished
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: her all the best and that was really it.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: How would you describe her mayalty?
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Look, she came in at the challenging time. I think
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: everybody would acknowledge that. I think she's She's done some
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: good things. I think one of the important things was
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: getting the zone changes for housing so we can actually
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: ready start to accelerate the high density housing that we need.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: But look, it has been challenging for her and for everybody.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I think people see that I stepped up to be
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: candidate for me because I think a lot of people
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: have lost confidence in the council and we need to
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: restore their confidence of people can have confidence in the
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: city again, and businesses can go about their job.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: For a city that's lost a lot of work and workers.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So that's why I'm in the race.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I'm from Wellington. The big problem, I mean, you talk
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: to anyone down there, it's rates. I mean rates have
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: gone up twenty one percent in a year. They're going
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: up thirty five percent over the next three years. You've
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: got your regional council rates up twenty five percent? Are
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you going to bring rates down?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Certainly want to slow the rise.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: I need to have a voice, look at executed what
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: has driven those rate increases.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: There is no It is simply not acceptable for rays
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: to increase.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: By my calculation, about thirty percent in the last two years.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: A lot of that is I think council not getting
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: a grip on their own finance. As I look at
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: some of the things that have happened there, I think
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: there's there's some capitalist bending that has been.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Incurred on the basis that it's not spread over the
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: life of various assets.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: You look at things like the Wellington Town Hall, a
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: project that right from there the very beginning, was meant
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: to cost you know, thirty to forty million dollars, now
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: well over three hundred million dollars.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: That suggests to me that people haven't got the eye
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: on the ball.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: No, and now we've got the now we've got the
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: golden mile. This is the latest iteration. And she's saying, oh,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I don't worry, it won't go over Bud. No one
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: believes it, Andrew. No one believes it. And you're not
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: stopping it. That's the problem. You're not coming in and
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: saying I'm going to cut this, I'm going to cut that.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, what exactly are you going to cut or
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: over three years? Okay for you, No, it's not at all.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: No, I've just said that, I said that laid in
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the interview.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: That's not acceptable at all, and it's it's it's one
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: of those things that's making Willington more unaffordable, not just
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: the housing, as things like rates as well. So I
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: will have a good look at the variety of projects
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: that are under way. What I have said is that
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: where there are contracts that are let I'm not going
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: to rip those up because that costs the countil more anyway.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: But we're contracts aren't leaked for particular projects. Now is
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: not the time to be doing stuff that's disruptive for
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: what is quite a fragile business climate in Willington.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: So I am committed to doing all right.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So phase one of the Golden Mile, they've got the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: contract for that. Nothing beyond that. So you're saying you
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: wouldn't support anything Golden Mile beyond that Phase one.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I'm saying, stop it now.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of people say to me they think
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: that actually the Golden Mile stuff is in the long
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: term is a good thing. It just doesn't have tapped
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: right now and we just don't need the disruption.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: All right, that's good, that's good, that's definitive. That's contracts
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: that have been done now. Yes, anything beyond that the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Golden Mile, Andrew Little is saying no. And just to
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: be clear, the thirty five percent I was talking about,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that's over the next three years, So you were talking
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: about the last two So is thirty five percent over
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the next three years acceptable to you?
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: No, it's not no.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: And that that has that has to be refewed and
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: looked at and we need to take cost out.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: We just need to is twenty seven kilometers and new
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: cycle ways and priority bus lanes doubling from four to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: eight kilometers, which Tory Faros says was one of her successes.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Is that a good or a bad thing for Wellington?
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: Well, I think.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: Enabling people who go about their work or what they
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: do their recreation on a bike and they can do
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: so safety is important. So I'm not opposed to cycle ways.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I think some of the implementation of them have been
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: but I don't agree with Moles Street, for example, being
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: reduced to one lane. I don't agree with the way
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: things have happened around the botanical gardens. There are a
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: lot of elderly people who have spoken to me, to
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: me they can't visit there now because they can't get
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: a pack.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: So I think some thought has to be gone on
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: to the way some of those are implemented.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Do I believe in safe lanes for cyclists, Yes, but
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: let's do it safely, very.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Quickly before you go. The city deal. I know it
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was a disaster because you know Wellington didn't apply. Is
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: there any way will you look to get some leniency
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: from the government so that you know you can get
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: one done?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I cen it would make that a priority.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: I think I've got good relations with pretty much every
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: minister in office at the moment. I've always had good
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: relations with people across the aisle and I'd be surprised
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: if there wasn't a way that we can work with gavinall.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Right, Andrew Little, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: coming on the program. Andrew Little, who will probably be
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the Wellington mayor. He is the course of candidate at
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: this point. Tory Funo is out. For more from early
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talks. It'd
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: be from five am weekdays of the podcast on iHeartRadio.