My Priorities

Modern multi-story apartment complex built on a hillside with large glass windows and metal siding, overlooking a grassy area with a fence and a sidewalk, residential houses on the hilltop.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Urban street under construction with traffic signals and large modern building on the right, hillside with residential houses in the background.

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.