(he/him) for Mayor of Wellington
Vote Alex Baker
Fresh thinking, future focused
As Mayor, I will support Wellington to keep making progress, delivering the positive, sustainable outcomes Wellingtonians want, while applying the strong, pragmatic financial management we need.
As the former Director Sustainability at Kāinga Ora and a former Chartered Accountant from KPMG I have public and private sector leadership experience in financial management, sustainability and city infrastructure. These are critical areas of expertise for any leader seeking to resolve the challenges facing Wellington.
I love Wellington, it’s an amazing place to live. I’m raising a family here and in 30 years will still be working and living here. I am committed to this city and I have the skills, energy and motivation to make sure Wellington is a place where people want to, and can afford to live.
My priorities and policies
My three key priorities are affordability, jobs and sustainability.
Affordability means affordable rates, rents, house prices and transport costs. There are three main mechanisms for achieving this
Population growth, to reduce rates per person
Attracting investment so that council and ratepayers don’t have to pay for everything
Cost control to reduce Council costs without negatively affecting the services and infrastructure that we like, or need
Jobs means making Wellington a place where businesses are more successful and employ more people, increasing opportunities for the people of our city.
Sustainability means reducing emissions and waste, plus protecting and enhancing nature. This is the right thing to do for our kids and environment and an excellent way to support Wellington to become more affordable and to grow long term.
I have six policies focussed on achieving this goal:
My Open for Business policy is focused on working with Wellington businesses to grow their revenue and operations in our city. It is also about creating a fertile environment for start ups to succeed. We have an excellent track record of successful businesses in Wellington and I want more of it, so that we have sufficient, meaningful job opportunities in Wellington to keep our talented young people here.
Switching back to Land Values as the basis for charging rates will bring Wellington’s tax settings into alignment with cities like Sydney and Brisbane.
The current system leads to some extremely unfair outcomes.
This change will mean we no longer have tax settings that penalise development and reward landbanking.
This will improve the feasibility of building homes, increasing housing supply, making rents and house prices more affordable, and thereby enabling growth and allowing rates to be reduced, as costs are shared across more people.
Rates paid by each household will more accurately reflect the actual costs to council of the infrastructure and services provided to the site.
For most households this will mean a rates decrease.
My Sustainable Transport policy is simply to deliver the bus and bike infrastructure already planned including the Golden Mile. This is the cheapest way to stop our roads from being brought to a stand still by traffic as our city grows. This type of infrastructure also supports the lifestyle younger people want, which will help attract talent and reduce rates.
Wellington Wilderness Park is about doubling down on our successful conservation movement and celebrating the epic parks and wilderness areas on our city’s doorstep. This will continue to grow the great environmental, community and social outcomes we are already getting from initiatives like Makara Peak and Predator Free Wellington, as well as leveraging our international reputation as a leader in biodiversity to drive tourism and attract talent.
High Performing Council means better cost control, prioritisation and commercial discipline at Wellington City Council, to bring down costs. This policy is also focused on changing and improving the culture at Council to make it a body Wellingtonians want to work with.
Celebrate Wellington is about making sure that we do not lose sight of what makes Wellington great and resolving some of the things we are struggling with:
Wellington City Council has strong mana whenua partnerships which are working effectively. This is a credit to our city and is an area that should continue to be strengthened.
an unacceptably high number of Wellingtonians experience physical and sexual assault at some point, with women and those with intersecting identities disproportionately affected. My goal would be for dramatic improvement in these statistics. I believe WCC has a broad role in prevention and support through culture change, urban design and victim support initiatives.
Wellington has an incredible rainbow community. Internationally rainbow communities have come under attack. I want to ensure that WCC has an understanding of the challenging facing rainbow community members and that the mayor and councillors are an ally to the community.
Our arts sector has traditionally been a point of great pride for Wellington, but is currently having a challenging time. I believe that resolving our city’s economic challenges will breathe life back into the sector but that additional action should also be taken. This includes reprioritising arts and events funding away from attracting large international events and into activation of local spaces and funding to ensure small local events can continue.
The combination of these policies will result in Wellington becoming an affordable, safe and fun city to live in, with great opportunities for people to work and enjoy access a thriving social and outdoor environment.
Contact and donations
My family is funding $40,000 of campaign expenses because we believe in Wellington. I do not have a team of party staff running my campaign, so what you see is what you get. If you are interested in supporting my campaign by making a donation please make a deposit into my campaign account, details below and include your name as a reference.
Account name: Alexander Baker
Account: 03-0531-0806433-000
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If you are interested in volunteering or supporting my campaign please include a message describing what skills you have and what you would be keen to do.
Vision for a city
I love my kids, family and friends and I love having fun. I want Wellington to be a place where everyone can thrive and have fun, both now and into the future. A place that is growing because people can imagine a positive future for themselves and their families here.
The Wellington I want this city to become is a great place to do business and is affordable for people to live in. It is resilient to the inevitable changes in our environment. It has great access to enchanting outdoor spaces and supports a thriving arts and cultural scene.
Wellington is at a critical juncture. The decisions we make now will determine whether we move forward as a prosperous city, one that collaborates, agrees a vision for the future and makes the hard decisions needed to get there. Alternatively we become a city that stagnates, which does not grow, where costs are high and it is hard to get ahead.
It is crucial that the Mayor has sufficient knowledge, skills and experience to make decisions that will lead Wellington into a prosperous future. This is critical to support the Council with making informed and tactical strategic decisions, carefully managing costs and making the right choices at the right price.
To become prosperous Wellington needs to get its settings and infrastructure right to support growth. Bold vision and sensible financial management are essential components of this. So is the ability to make mature decisions about incentives, investments, rates, council funding, public amenity and services. Council costs need to be managed, but this cannot be done in a way that increases other costs for Wellingtonians.
Our city needs a Mayor that ensures it grows smarter
Growing a city means getting conditions right so that people want to live and do business here. A city needs to get three things right to achieve this:
Good jobs that give people the ability to earn reasonable salaries and wages.
Reasonable costs that are low enough (both in terms of financial costs and commuting time) for people and businesses to be able to thrive.
Amenity that attracts you to the city - whether it’s that walk to the beach, that cafe down the road, the nightlife, the mountain bike trails or simply the ability to live in close and easy proximity to loved ones.
The current environment in Wellington is challenging because of quickly escalating costs combined with a sharp decline in peoples ability to earn. This is frustrating the city causing people to move away and businesses to stop investment.
Turning this around requires putting settings in place that attract people to our city, improve vibrancy, boost arts, culture and services industries; and drive growth.
As Mayor I will focus on setting Wellington up to grow. Therefore my priorities are focussed around housing affordability, public and active transport upgrades, conducive commercial conditions and boosting our natural and cultural environment.
My Priorities
Wellingtonians are sick of high rent low quality rentals, unaffordable house prices and extreme rates increases.
Changes need to be made to get housing costs under control by encouraging development, increasing the supply of quality housing and ensuring that rates are charged in a way that is fair and effective.
The goal of these changes would be to allow the city to grow without the Council having to invest in high cost new infrastructure. This would mean:
More homes being built in more sensible locations improving housing affordability
Increased quality housing
Reduced rates per person as the cities total costs can be spread across more people.
All of the above might encourage your friends or children to move back to Wellington.
Wellington needs transport infrastructure that makes it faster, cheaper and easier for people to move around our city.
Space is the biggest constraint to Wellington having an effective transport network. Therefore it is critical we prioritise transport networks that are space efficient - allowing more people to travel through transport corridors faster.
This means completing and improving bus priority lanes, cycle lanes and pedestrianisation upgrades to allow:
Cheaper, faster and more reliable public transport.
Safer bike and walking journeys that are more fun.
When you need to drive less congestion means you get around or across town faster.
Guaranteed emissions reductions from increased public transport use and walking and cycling.
Successful and profitable businesses are an important part of the Wellington economy. They create well paying jobs and good businesses bring prosperity to the region through investment and innovation. It is important that Wellington is a place where businesses can succeed and are able to compete on a world stage.
I can see three areas to focus on to improve business viability:
In Wellington businesses pay substantially higher rates than households. This is unsustainably high and needs to be resolved.
Disruption due to city improvement activities is a key issue for businesses. Those businesses should receive fair compensation during periods of disruption.
Growing Wellington will provide increased opportunity for businesses to access specialised resources, improving productivity.
Emissions from light vehicles are the number one source of CO2 pollution for Wellington city. Prioritising development of well located new housing, combined with active and public transport upgrades are the critical actions to reduce Wellingtons emissions.
Wellington has some amazing natural spaces and has built a global reputation in conservation. However, much of our town belt and many of our parks are riddled with weeds. Pest control efforts have not been completed and are in jeopardy. I want to ensure the council invests adequately to continue progress enhancing the natural environment that supports our city.
Effective mana whenua partnerships
As the original inhabitants of the area, Māori have unique rights and interests in Te Whanganui a Tara. These are enshrined in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Supporting Māori to overcome historical inequities is vital for Wellington to move forward as a thriving city.
Tākai Here is the formal partnership which established a shared governance model with mana whenua. This supports Wellington getting its city settings right, to enable Māori succeeding owning their own solutions.
I will work with mana whenua representatives to understand what is working well and what isn’t and take actions to improve the results. I will take a strengths based approach to ensuring Council works in a way that enables Māori to achieve their goals.
World leading earthquake risk management
Wellington City is exposed to a significant risk from earthquakes. The way we manage this risk dictates both the consequences of an event; and, the overall prosperity of our city before and after such an event takes place.
Risk tolerance is critical here. Being too intolerant to risks, places undue costs on the city. Being too tolerant could put innocent people in harms way.
For the last few years, increasing our approach to earthquake risk management has placed real strain on Wellington city. We need to become the best city in the world at understanding and managing earthquake risks to ensure we get the balance right.
Promoted by Alex Baker, info@alexbakerwellington.nz