Smart Little

Dave Armstrong writes:

When Andrew Little was elected Wellington mayor six weeks ago, lefties on social media celebrated. …

Andrew Little is in the excellent position of having five loyal Labour councillors on his side, some of whom probably owe their council seat to his win. If there’s a progressive policy like building social housing or creating cycle lanes, Little can call on four Green councillors for support and get the policy through, regardless of what the right-wing independents think.

Similarly, if there is a progressive policy that our mayor thinks too radical or expensive, he can look over to the right and get them on board, with only four Greens voting against. It seems that despite the celebrations of the left and the pessimism of the right, centrism rules OK.

I’m not sure it is centrism as much as realism. It is also learning from Whanau’s mistakes. She refused to ever give the independent Councillors any “wins” at all, and it is hard to have a unified Council if a third of them feel the Mayor hates them and won’t deal with them.

Take the Golden Mile project. The right-wing hates it and doesn’t want a bar of it. They see it as an overly green and disruptive plan that aspires to make Wellington a little Copenhagen or Amsterdam. Andrew Little seems to agree with the project in principle but during the mayoral campaign promised to review it. That, with the support of his Labour councillors and the right-wing independents, is exactly what he’s done.

The meltdown on the left over this has been hilarious. Read The Spinoff and you would think Little has just voted to drop a nuclear bomb on the CBD.

Many elements of the Golden Mile project are uncontroversial. But the major aspect that gets opposition is turning it into a bus only route. This will destroy hundreds of car parks. Some argue that this will increase patronage, but the vast majority of the business owners (ie those with actual lived experience) think it will hurt their businesses, and even close some down. I think we should listen to the people who are most affected.

The bus only proposal is the worst of both worlds. You make it hard for people to drive in, but you still have huge buses hurtling through the Golden Mile. If the vision really is to be a city with a two km long outdoor mall, you should go the whole hog and make it both car and bus free.

Admittedly, the Golden Mile has gone only a smidgen over budget compared to the Town Hall blowout

Only a leftie like Dave could call 100% a smidgen 🙂

In 2020 it was $78 million. In 2023 it was $139 million and now it is $220 million. Sure that is less than the Town Hall blowout, but just because Saturn is smaller than Jupiter, doesn’t mean Saturn isn’t still huge.

The $220 million cost is $2,750 per household in Wellington. We have many households feeling the pinch already, and The Spinoff is sulking that a Mayor who promised lower rates rises is not just whacking ratepayers with a $2,750 bill per household.

The Greens registered their opposition to Ray “Hot Mic” Chung being chair of the council-controlled organisations review and appointments committee, but supported the overall ratification vote for all chairs.

I’m surprised that so many on the left don’t appreciate how cunning Little is being. It is well known that Chung is a better retail politician than getting into the nuts and bolts. Little is effectively giving Chung enough rope to hang himself.

Little has said he will review committee chairs in 18 months. If Chung doesn’t perform as a committee chair, then Little can shuffle him out without it looking like sour grapes for standing against Little. It will be based on performance. It is a very smart tactical move.

Another interesting thing about this council is that it seems to vote more on party lines than the last. On the airport sale, Reading Centre and other issues, Labour, Green and independent councillors were divided. You had right-wingers Tim Brown and John Apanowicz, both no longer councillors, supporting some of Tory Whanau’s policies, while Labour’s Nureddin Abdurahman and Ben McNulty were opposed. Then you had independents like Sarah Free who often supported the right but not always, or ex-Green Iona Pannett who supported the left on some things, the right on others, and occasionally voted against almost the entire council.

This is an insightful point. All three blocs have changed and become more unified.

• Labour: Now has a Labour Mayor. They are actually constitutionally obliged to vote in line with party policy and/or local caucus if someone deems the issue important enough. But also Little will keep his team inside the tent and happy. So they will vote together almost always.
• Independents: Two of the independents did indeed vote often with Whanau. The two new independents are more fiscally conservative and on big spending issues, I expect we will see a unified bloc against the wasteful projects. On other issues, probably some differences.
• Greens: Free and Pannett got elected as Greens but were effectively kicked out for being too independent. All the Greens Councillors are now pretty hard left, and I imagine will vote together on almost every important issue if it means they can hike rates up, or ban cars or both.

I wonder if local Green MPs Julie Anne Genter and Tamatha Paul will face a backlash for the actions of a Green mayor who supported corporate welfare and the privatisation of public assets?

I don’t think they will. If they lose it will be more due to their performance as local MPs. Saying you want fewer police on the beat doesn’t tend to endear you to the housewives of Karori!

With former climate change activist Sophie Handford standing for Labour in Kāpiti, Craig Renney hoping to send Julie Anne Genter on her e-bike in Wellington Bays, and former health minister Ayesha Verrall challenging Tamatha Paul in Wellington North, this anti-government city may be interesting to watch come election time – mainly to see just exactly what flavour of anti-government Wellington chooses.

Both Wellington Bays and Wellington North will be very interesting races. Curia is happy to poll the electorates for any candidates 🙂