We invit­ed all can­di­dates in Welling­ton elec­torates to con­tact us with their answers to fif­teen crowd­sourced ques­tions. Answers are restrict­ed to 30 words each, and we pub­lish them exact­ly as we receive them. 

  1. Who are you and what do you want? 
    My name is Dr Sea Rot­mann and I want NZ to be green and clean, with hap­py, healthy kids, safe rivers and seas and some long-term, big-pic­ture think­ing from politi­cians
  2. You have 30 sec­onds to con­vince some­one to come to Welling­ton. What’s your pitch?
     It is the most gor­geous lit­tle jew­el in the South Pacif­ic, great peo­ple, lots of cool stuff to do and the most amaz­ing envi­ron­ment all around it
  3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
     I am all for it — trans­paren­cy usu­al­ly helps inno­va­tion and reduces rorts in the sys­tem
  4. Describe your bicy­cle, or your favourite bus route?
    It’s my ex-boss’s moun­tain bike in duck yel­low and my bus route is the 30 Break­er Bay which starts right out­side my house
  5. When did you last use the library, a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­i­ty?
    Hmmm, too long ago!
  6. Would you wel­come a cen­tral gov­ern­ment dri­ven “super-city” amal­ga­ma­tion of local author­i­ties?
    I am not sure that Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment under­stands Local Gov­ern­ment issues well enough. Let’s see how Auck­land goes.
  7. What city inspires your vision for Welling­ton? How?
     Berlin — it is the coolest and most eclec­tic; Havana for the rooftop gar­dens; my home­town Graz for its amaz­ing old archi­tec­ture that sur­vived cen­turies
  8. Is the con­cept of demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion impor­tant to you? How so?
    Absolute­ly. Which is why it is so impor­tant to keep MMP this elec­tion, as it is by far the fairest and most demo­c­ra­t­ic sys­tem of rep­re­sen­ta­tion
  9. What achieve­ment for Welling­ton are you most proud of?
    The film indus­try and the fact it turned into such a great, live­able, cool city. The marine reserve, as the South Coast is our taon­ga
  10. What role do you think cen­tral gov­ern­ment should play in local roading/public trans­port issues?
    It needs to stop fund­ing crazy road­ing projects and put mon­ey into pub­lic trans­port and main­te­nance — see Greens’ trans­port plan
  11. How can we make Welling­ton more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly? Do NOT build the Basin fly­over and 6‑lane high­way in Haitaitai!
    The coun­cil’s 2040 strat­e­gy out­lines a smart, green city. Com­mu­ni­ty gar­dens and bet­ter cycling/walking.
  12. What will you do to ensure diverse rep­re­sen­ta­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
    Keep MMP and fix it up.
  13. What’s your per­son­al his­to­ry of liv­ing in Welling­ton?
    Moved here 8 years ago after falling in love the sec­ond I got off the plane when I came to ‘Return of the Kings’ pre­miere. Own my dream house on the beach.
  14. What pol­i­cy of your par­ty do you think will have the most impact on Welling­ton?
    The Greens will have the best impact, the Nats the worst, but if they win the major­i­ty it will be the most impact.
  15. Do you gen­uine­ly believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a par­ty cam­pa­gin?
    It is a Par­ty Vote cam­paign all the way, but I real­ly enjoy cam­paign­ing in the Wairara­pa — it’s a micro-cosm of ‘real’ New Zealand.