The mayor is clearing the path for Andrew Little, saying she doesn’t want a ‘Green vs. Labour narrative to distract from what’s important for our city’, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Whanau steps aside for a united progressive front
Tory Whanau is bowing out. The Wellington mayor this morning announced she will not seek a second term, instead throwing her efforts behind retaining the city’s Māori ward seat for the Greens. “The progressive goals I have fought for are at risk this election,” Whanau said in a statement to The Spinoff, explaining she did not want a Green versus Labour contest to become a distraction. “When I had put my name forward to run for mayor again, I was worried there were no viable candidates for mayor. Now that has changed, I can now focus on what is important to me.”
Whanau, who ran as an independent endorsed by the Greens in 2022, said she would now campaign alongside Labour’s Andrew Little to ensure progressive change continued. Her announcement came just a day after launching the first stage of the Golden Mile upgrade – a project she called a “key milestone for my mayoralty and the transformative change I campaigned on”.
A clear path for Little’s mayoral bid
Whanau’s exit leaves the field wide open for Andrew Little, who entered the mayoral race earlier this month and quickly reshaped its dynamics. The former Labour leader, who last night received formal backing from his party, is promising “urgent change and serious leadership”, highlighting issues like housing development and better public transport. Writing in The Spinoff last week, Joel MacManus noted that Little has positioned himself slightly to Whanau’s right – supporting cycleways but advocating for a more cautious rollout, for example, and suggesting a rephasing of the Golden Mile project.
Part of Little’s approach so far has been to appeal to suburban voters by emphasising investment in popular community facilities like Begonia House and Khandallah Pool. Now, with Whanau stepping aside, he can shift leftward to shore up Green-leaning voters without risking his broader centrist appeal. As MacManus argued, “Little has genuine progressive bona fides – his key to victory will be to lean into them, not shy away.”
Achievements and stumbles mark Whanau’s tenure
Tory Whanau’s term in office will be remembered for both bold achievements and a series of damaging controversies. On the positive side, she spearheaded the Golden Mile revitalisation, pushed through a pro-density District Plan, secured major funding boosts for water infrastructure, and championed the construction of new cycleways and bus lanes. Her statement this morning also highlights the planting of 223,000 trees and her backing of social initiatives like Te Pā Maru, Wellington’s first wet house for rough sleepers.
Yet her mayoralty was marred by persistent controversies and mounting evidence that she had “the political radar of the Aratere”, as MacManus wrote in an entertainingly exasperated column last year. Evidence for his argument included her comments on the cost of living that critics said highlighted her privilege, and her admission of a drinking problem – which managed to turn “a baseless rumour into a major news story”, MacManus wrote. The bungled attempt to sell the council’s airport shares, which exposed fractures within her political base, further dented her leadership credentials.
Mayor’s focus shifts to defending Māori ward
Whanau says that from today she will run for Te Whanganui-a-Tara, the Māori ward currently held by the Green Party’s Nīkau Wi Neera, who will not seek re-election. Last year Wi Neera found himself at the centre of the clash over the airport share sale – first opposing, then reluctantly supporting the sale after mana whenua said they had been disenfranchised by a key clause he had signed off on. As he reflected in Oliver Neas’s comprehensive post-mortem of the airport debacle in The Spinoff, he and his fellow no-vote councillors had “messed up and didn’t do our due diligence on the exact wording”.
Ultimately, the stress of navigating these tensions likely helped push Wi Neera out of local politics. Whanau this morning thanked him for his “tireless mahi on advancing kaupapa Māori” and said she was “incredibly excited about running for the Māori Ward at a time when Te Tiriti is under attack from central government”.
