Thanks to Kerry for send­ing in her answers to our ques­tions. As you can see, we were ser­i­ous about only pub­lish­ing 25 word answers. 

1. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?
 We have it all – great food, great recre­ation and art, and great night­life. It’s the cul­tur­al hub of New Zea­l­and. 93% of Wel­ling­to­ni­ans rate our…

2. How do you think traffic flow to the hos­pit­al and air­port could be improved?
 We need to com­plete our plan­ning for and imple­ment a rap­id trans­port sys­tem on ded­ic­ated lanes from the Rail­way sta­tion to the Air­port and the…

3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
It’s import­ant to under­stand it isn’t the Coun­cil’s job to deal with Gov­ern­ment data. I have always taken the view that the major­ity of loc­al…

4. What plans have do you have to improve recycling/composting facil­it­ies?
We recently announced a new recyc­ling con­tract which will see Wel­ling­to­ni­ans con­tinu­ing to use their cur­rent green bins (used by 85% of res­id­ents) but with improved…

5. What is your policy on street alco­hol­ics?
 We need to provide care and shel­ter for these people and I sup­port the Night Shel­ter. I drove a May­or­al Taskforce on this issue which…

6. Do you sup­port ped­es­tri­an­isa­tion of the Golden Mile Why/Why not?
This is and should remain the pre-emin­ent pub­lic trans­port artery, along with ser­vice vehicles and tax­is. It is a nar­row por­tion of Wel­ling­ton CBD and…

7. What’s the last loc­al mar­ket you went to? What did you buy?
Chaf­fers mar­ket last week­end. I tend to buy the fresh veges, cheese, oil, bread, and fresh fish from Yel­low Brick Road Dis­trib­ut­ors. No mat­ter how…

8. Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route?
 Trusty old com­fort­able Avanti which I use fre­quently around the water­front. Did the Otago Rail Trail over East­er with friends.

9. When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?
 Use Frey­berg gym 3 times a week for an hour and I try to keep up my swim­ming – it’s great for fit­ness and think­ing time.

10. Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies? If not, why not?
 No. Wel­ling­ton region’s pop­u­la­tion should choose its own form of gov­ernance and if there is to be change we will ask the Gov­ern­ment to meet…

11. Do you think the coun­cil has a role in fos­ter­ing com­munity web­sites? If so, how?
 I am com­mit­ted to con­tin­ued sup­port where we con­tract Wel­ling­ton Com­munity Net to deliv­er free web host­ing for com­munity groups.

12. Where do you stand on water privit­isa­tion, and why?
I’m against privat­isa­tion and will con­tin­ue to sup­port the cur­rent legis­la­tion that for­bids this hap­pen­ing. Wel­ling­ton has inves­ted heav­ily in our water infra­struc­ture and we…

13. What city over­seas inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?
San Fran­cisco because of its archi­tec­ture, its water­front, its food and wine, its walkab­il­ity, its pub­lic trans­port, its tol­er­ance and diversity, and its sup­port for…

14. Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you? How so?
Yes – it is very import­ant. NZ was the first coun­try to give women the vote. Giv­en the import­ance of this, and our later moves into…

15. What do you think about com­munity gar­dens on pub­lic land?
 I sup­port these. The coun­cil has just opened one in Brook­lyn and we are work­ing on one in Hataitai. I’m pre­pared to sup­port any com­munity…