Who’s behind Better Wellington, and why are they trying to influence local politics in the capital?
Windbag is The Spinoff’s Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. It’s made possible thanks to the support of The Spinoff Members.
Better Wellington, a conspiracy-aligned rightwing political campaign group, is making moves to influence the 2025 local body election. The group was briefly active during the 2022 election, taking out some newspaper ads endorsing candidates, but in the past few weeks it has relaunched with a more intense focus than before.
Better Wellington launched Twitter and Facebook pages in July, and its blog has been active since June 24. Most of the content the group posts is pretty standard rightwing opposition to Wellington local issues: cycleways, rate rises, Māori wards and so on. But sometimes the mask slips.
A series of satirical videos created by the group refer to mayor Tory Whanau as a “diversity hire” aiming to “further the trans agenda”. The videos focus on Whanau’s admitted drinking problems, and she is depicted drunk driving. The Twitter account consistently reshares anti-trans posts about Olympic athletes.
None of the content has received much attention. The group has 69 followers on Twitter and 10 on Facebook at the time of publication. But it’s not the reach that’s notable, it’s the quantity of posts. The pages are regularly posting original, often detailed content. There is some significant effort being put in here, and the people behind it are apparently committed to continuing until the 2025 local body elections.
Who is behind Better Wellington?
The website was registered by Paul Heffernan, whose name is also on the authorising statement. Heffernan previously ran a business named MindShift, which he promoted as “a unique, powerful and transformational program designed to remove anxiety and depression within 2-3 days” priced from $1,495 to $5,995.
Gary Moller is also listed as a founding supporter. Moller was at the parliamentary protests in 2022, is a regular guest on Reality Check Radio, and has written for Cameron Slater’s blog The BFD. He wrote a series of articles in 2023 arguing the splintered “freedom” movement should unite behind New Zealand First, and encouraged his followers to join the party and influence it from within.
Glenn Inwood is the author of most of Better Wellington’s blog posts. Inwood is a longtime political operative who has worked for Imperial Tobacco and various entities in the whaling industry. He was highly involved in the 2022 parliamentary protests and served as a go-between for protest leaders and Act leader David Seymour. Inwood spoke at the Unsilenced anti-trans event at Tākina earlier this year.
Inwood is the man behind Resistance Kiwi, a conspiracy website, social media account and Telegram group, most of which are now defunct. The Resistance Kiwi Twitter account appears to have been the original source of the false online rumours spread last year about a video of Tory Whanau. The account posted the earliest public reference to the rumours, seven days before RNZ published a story based on them (without any evidence that the video existed).
Heffernan and Inwood were both listed as directors of the SB Group, a registered third-party promoter at the 2023 election which ran ads on behalf of Shane Jones and NZ First. The SB Group promoted the website VoteWise, which urged National voters to pick Jones as a strategic choice.
Who do they support?
The Better Wellington Facebook page recently posted leaked emails sent by deputy mayor Laurie Foon to all councillors, which suggests Better Wellington is in fairly close contact with at least one current councillor.
The group hasn’t explicitly endorsed any candidate yet, though it has published announcements on behalf of councillor and mayoral contender Ray Chung. In 2022, Better Wellington endorsed Andy Foster for mayor. Foster lost the election and has since become an NZ First MP. Other current councillors endorsed by the group in 2022 include: Ray Chung, Nicola Young, Diane Calvert, Tony Randle and Tim Brown.
What are they planning to do in the 2025 local body election?
The website says it will support candidates based on six policy pillars, though it doesn’t actually say what those pillars are. “These will be added here in due course,” the website says.
The Spinoff contacted Better Wellington with a series of questions about its founders and its plans for the 2025 campaign, but did not receive a response.