0:00

true Tory Farno style, the Wellington

0:02

mayor this morning performing one

0:04

final massive flip -flop after saying

0:06

she would run for re -election

0:08

for the mayor, she's U -turned. In

0:10

a planned media statement in Bargo until

0:12

five o 'clock this morning, she's announced she'll

0:14

instead run for a Māori ward and

0:17

let Andrew Little take the top job.

0:19

I know that he would do a really

0:21

good job. I hope that people would see

0:24

it as a gracious move. I'm merely

0:26

stepping aside because he really wants the role.

0:28

Of course, he's got to get elected first, but he's

0:30

with me this morning. Andrew, good morning. Good

0:32

morning, Ryan. So you had a call,

0:34

I understand, from Tori Farna. What

0:36

did she say? She

0:39

rang me last week. She said that she

0:41

had thought about it and that she didn't want

0:43

to contest the mayoralty. She had

0:45

yet to talk to a range of

0:47

other people, but that's what she

0:49

said. I said, look, thanks

0:52

for letting me know. I'm not looking

0:54

for anything. I

0:56

wish her all the best and that was really it. How

0:59

would you describe her Melty?

1:04

Look, she came in at a challenging

1:06

time. I think everybody would acknowledge

1:08

that. I think she's done some good

1:10

things. I think one of the

1:12

important things was getting the zone changes

1:14

for housing so we can actually

1:16

really start to accelerate the higher density

1:18

housing that we need. But

1:20

look, it has been challenging for

1:22

her and for everybody. I

1:24

think people see that I

1:26

stepped up to be a candidate

1:28

for me because I think

1:30

a lot of people have lost confidence in

1:32

the council and we need to restore

1:35

their confidence of people can have confidence

1:37

in the city again and businesses can

1:39

go about their job for a city

1:41

that's lost a lot of work and

1:43

workers so that's why I'm in the

1:45

race. I'm from Wellington the big problem

1:47

I mean you talk to anyone down

1:49

there it's rates I mean rates have

1:51

gone up 21 % in

1:53

a year. They're going up 35 %

1:55

over the next three years. You got

1:57

your regional council rates up 25%.

2:00

Are you going to bring rates down? I

2:03

certainly want to slow the

2:05

rise. I need to

2:07

have a close look at exactly what

2:09

has driven those rate increases. It

2:12

is simply not acceptable for rates to increase by

2:14

my calculation about 30 % in the last two

2:16

years. A lot of that is I think council

2:18

not getting a grip on their own finances. I

2:20

look at some of the things that

2:22

have happened there. I think there's

2:25

some capital spending that has been incurred

2:27

on the basis that it's not

2:29

spread over the life of various assets.

2:31

You look at things like the Wellington

2:33

Town Hall. a project that right

2:35

from the very beginning was meant to

2:37

cost you know $30 to $40 million now

2:39

well over $300 million. That suggests

2:42

to me that people haven't got the eye

2:44

on the ball. No and now we've got

2:46

the golden mile. This is the latest iteration

2:48

and she's saying oh no don't worry it

2:50

won't go over but no one believes it.

2:52

Andrew no one believes it and you're not

2:54

stopping it. That's the problem. You're not coming

2:56

in saying I'm gonna cut this, I'm gonna

2:59

cut that. I mean what exactly are you

3:01

gonna cut? Or is 35 %

3:03

over three years OK for you? No,

3:06

it's not at all. No, I've just said that. I said that earlier in

3:08

the interview. That's not acceptable at all. And

3:11

it's one of those things that's

3:13

making Wellington more unaffordable, not just the

3:15

housing, it's things like rates as

3:17

well. So I will have a good

3:19

look at the variety of projects that are

3:21

underway. What I have said is that there

3:23

are contracts that are lit. I'm not

3:25

going to rip those up because that costs the council more

3:27

anyway. But the contracts aren't lit

3:30

for particular projects. Now is not the time

3:32

to be doing stuff that's disruptive. Um

3:34

for what is quite a fragile

3:36

business climate in Wellington, so so I

3:38

am committed to doing all right

3:40

so phase one of The golden mile

3:42

they've got the contract for that

3:44

nothing beyond that so you're saying you

3:46

wouldn't support anything golden mile beyond

3:48

that phase one I'm saying

3:51

stop it now Look, there's a lot of

3:53

people say to me, they think that actually

3:55

the gold mile stuff is in the long

3:57

term is a good thing. It just doesn't

3:59

have to happen right now and we just

4:01

don't need the destruction. All right, that's

4:03

good. That's good. That's definitive. That's fine. Contracts

4:06

that have been done now, yes, anything

4:08

beyond that, the golden mile. Andrew

4:10

Little is saying no. And just to

4:12

be clear, the 35 % I was talking

4:14

about, that's over the next three years. So

4:16

you were talking about the last two.

4:18

So is 35 % over the next three

4:20

years acceptable to you? No,

4:22

it's not. And that has to be

4:25

reviewed and looked at and we

4:27

need to take cost out. We just

4:29

need to. Is 27 kilometres

4:31

of new cycleways and priority bus

4:33

lanes doubling from four to eight

4:35

kilometres? Which Tori Fano says was

4:37

one of her successes. Is that

4:39

a good or a bad thing for

4:41

Wellington? Well, I

4:43

think enabling people

4:46

who who go about their work or what

4:48

they do their recreation on a bike and

4:50

they can are doing so safely is important.

4:52

So I'm not opposed to cycleways. I think

4:54

some of the implementation of them have been

4:56

a bit odd. I don't agree with Moldsworth

4:58

Street, for example, being reduced to one lane.

5:00

I don't agree with the way things have

5:02

happened around the botanical gardens. There are a

5:04

lot of elderly people who have spoken to

5:06

me, they can't visit there now because they

5:08

can't get a park. So I think some

5:10

thought has to be gone on to the

5:12

way some of those are implemented. Do

5:14

I believe in safe lanes for

5:16

cyclists? Yes, but let's do it safely.

5:18

Very quickly before you go, the

5:20

city deal, I know it was a

5:22

disaster because Wellington didn't apply. Is

5:25

there any way, will you look to

5:27

get some leniency from the government so that

5:29

you can get one done? Yeah,

5:31

I certainly would make that a priority. I

5:33

think I've got good relations with pretty much

5:35

every minister and office at the moment I've

5:37

always had good relations with people across the

5:39

aisle and I'd be surprised if there wasn't

5:41

a way that we can work with Gavin

5:43

Andrew little appreciate your time this morning. Thanks

5:45

for coming on the program Andrew little who

5:47

will probably be the Wellington mayor He is

5:49

of course a candidate at this point Tory

5:51

funnel is out For more

5:53

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5:56

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