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 am Grant Robertson, and I want your vote to con­tin­ue to be MP for Wel­ling­ton Cent­ral and your party vote for Labour on Novem­ber 26th .
  2. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?
    Sunday morn­ing, you’re hav­ing the best cof­fee ever on Cuba St when the guy from Mighty Mighty last night walks by and says din­ner at Logan Brown is on him
  3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
    Got to hap­pen.
  4. Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route
    Lov­ing the 13 because it’s the most dir­ect to work in the morn­ing, and the 23 because it means I am on the way home.
  5. When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?
    Vis­ited Karori Com­munity Centre a couple of weeks ago to say hi to the folks who run the food­bank.
  6. Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies?
    Hell, no. If there is to be any change it has to be driv­en by the people of the region.
  7. What city inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?
    Cliched, but Mel­bourne or San Fran­cisco. Eclect­ic, spir­ited, great green space, thriv­ing cre­at­ive, arts, music scenes, trams, and gen­er­ally great vibe.
  8. Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you? How so?
    For sure. Because its how we make our coun­try work
  9. What achieve­ment for Wel­ling­ton are you most proud of?
    Help­ing make Wel­ling­ton a Fair Trade City. I have been on the Steer­ing Group since 2007, and it was great to be part of some­thing really pos­it­ive for the city.
  10. What role do you think cent­ral gov­ern­ment should play in loc­al roading/public trans­port issues?
    We need some cent­ral­ised trans­port plan­ning to make best use of resources, but need to change the fund­ing for­mula so that cent­ral gov­ern­ment funds a great­er per­cent­age of pub­lic trans­port.
  11. How can we make Wel­ling­ton more envir­on­ment­ally friendly?
    Sup­port Option X for the Basin Reserve devel­op­ment.
  12. What will you do to ensure diverse rep­res­ent­a­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
    Keep listen­ing to and talk­ing with a wide range of Wel­ling­to­ni­ans. This term I set up a Youth Advis­ory Group, would be good to have a couple of oth­ers this…
  13. What’s your per­son­al his­tory of liv­ing in Wel­ling­ton?
    Arrived end of 1994- Thorndon, then The Ter­race, then Wadestown, then Thorndon again, then over­seas, then back to Thorndon and then to Wilton, where we’ve been for 8 years.
  14. What policy of your party do you think will have the most impact on Wel­ling­ton?
    Not selling state assets. It mat­ters to all of us, because once they are gone, they will be tough to get back.
  15. Do you genu­inely believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a party cam­paign?
    In to retain the seat, and get the party vote for Labour.