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?
    I’m Holly, I’m from the Hutt, and I want a clean green eco­nomy that works for every­one. I also want to see more women in Par­lia­ment. And on bicycles.
  2. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?
    Wel­ling­ton – it’s close to the Hutt!
  3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
    All for it!
  4. Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route
    My bicycle is called Prudence. She is pale green, with a step-through frame and soft leath­er handle­bars. I love her.
  5. When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?
    I make weekly trips to the Petone lib­rary to get out new recipe books and trashy detect­ive nov­els.
  6. Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies?
    No.
  7. What city inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?
    Port­land, Ore­gon. Amer­ica’s green­est city, with a super-effi­cient pub­lic trans­port sys­tem, great cyc­ling infra­struc­ture, and funny comedi­ans! We’ve got the comedi­ans, now let’s tick off the oth­ers
  8. Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you? How so?
    Very. The House of Rep­res­ent­at­ives should be truly rep­res­ent­at­ive. MMP puts more women, Maori, rain­bows, and eth­nic minor­it­ies in Par­lia­ment, and means every vote counts. I’m vot­ing to keep it.
  9. What achieve­ment for Wel­ling­ton are you most proud of?
    Elect­ing the coun­try’s first green May­or, Celia Wade-Brown.
  10. What role do you think cent­ral gov­ern­ment should play in loc­al roading/public trans­port issues?
    Provide nation­al vis­ion and dir­ec­tion, integ­rate plan­ning between regions, and stump up with its fair share for loc­al pro­jects that have nation­al bene­fits – like light rail in Wel­ling­ton.
  11. How can we make Wel­ling­ton more envir­on­ment­ally friendly?
    Where to start? Smart pub­lic trans­port, bet­ter cyc­ling infra­struc­ture, clean­ing up water­ways, sub­sidies for rain­wa­ter tanks, more home insu­la­tion… The Greens have robust policies to advance all these goals.
  12. What will you do to ensure diverse rep­res­ent­a­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
    Diversity is very import­ant to the Greens. Our party list is bal­anced by gender, eth­ni­city, region, and sexu­al ori­ent­a­tion. We’re com­mit­ted to diverse per­spect­ives because they lead to bet­ter decision-mak­ing.
  13. What’s your per­son­al his­tory of liv­ing in Wel­ling­ton?
    I was born and raised in Lower Hutt, and now live in Petone. In between stints study­ing in Duned­in and Oxford, I’ve lived in Taita, New­town, Boul­cott, and Island Bay.
  14. What policy of your party do you think will have the most impact on Wel­ling­ton?
    Wel­ling­ton’s pub­lic trans­port is good by New Zea­l­and stand­ards, but poor by world stand­ards. We’re launch­ing our plan for integ­rated, effi­cient pub­lic trans­port in Wel­ling­ton soon, so watch this space!
  15. Do you genu­inely believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a party cam­paign?
    At num­ber 12 on the list, there’s a real chance I’ll be elec­ted. I’m ask­ing people to vote for who­ever best rep­res­ents them in their elect­or­ate, and party vote Green!