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 National’s Can­di­date for Welling­ton Cen­tral – I want your par­ty vote for Nation­al and your con­stituen­cy vote so we can build a brighter future for all New Zealan­ders.
  2. You have 30 sec­onds to con­vince some­one to come to Welling­ton. What’s your pitch?
    Welling­ton is a won­der­ful place to vis­it – a vibrant mix of artis­tic and com­mer­cial­ly cre­ative peo­ple. The most beau­ti­ful city in the most beau­ti­ful coun­try in the world.
  3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
    I believe that the gov­ern­ment should pro-active­ly pub­lish all infor­ma­tion unless there is a good rea­son (e.g. pri­va­cy, com­mer­cial sen­si­tiv­i­ty, nation­al secu­ri­ty) to with­hold it.
  4. Describe your bicy­cle, or your favourite bus route?|
    Not cur­rent­ly own­ing a car, the num­ber 3 from Karori to Lyall Bay is the one I use most often. I love the ride past the Botan­i­cal Gar­dens.
  5. When did you last use the library, a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­i­ty?
    I vis­it the library week­ly on aver­age, and last used a coun­cil com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre about three weeks ago for a meet­ing.
  6. Would you wel­come a cen­tral gov­ern­ment dri­ven “super-city” amal­ga­ma­tion of local author­i­ties?
    I believe some con­sol­i­da­tion may be ben­e­fi­cial, espe­cial­ly around region-wide resource man­age­ment, e.g. for water. But the Welling­ton Cen­tral CBD has lit­tle in com­mon with many neigh­bour­ing author­i­ties.
  7. What city inspires your vision for Welling­ton? How?
    I’d love to see a Welling­ton with Vienna’s music and cul­tur­al expe­ri­ence, Vancouver’s Pacif­ic Rim cos­mopoli­tanism — a com­pact cap­i­tal like Edin­burgh with an eclec­tic mix of archi­tec­ture.
  8. Is the con­cept of demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion impor­tant to you? How so?
    I have lived in coun­tries where democ­ra­cy doesn’t exist – and it’s hor­ri­ble to have no say in how your coun­try is run. Demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples are core to National’s phi­los­o­phy.
  9.  What achieve­ment for Welling­ton are you most proud of?
    Nation­al stand­ing up to the self-serv­ing Aussie unions and win back The Hob­bit, sav­ing thou­sands of jobs, $500 mil­lion+ of invest­ment and pre­vent­ing an icon­ic indus­try from being destroyed.
  10. What role do you think cen­tral gov­ern­ment should play in local roading/public trans­port issues?
    Gov­ern­ment does have a role: Nation­al invest­ed $88 mil­lion in refur­bish­ments and new units for our rail net­work.
  11.  How can we make Welling­ton more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly?
    Improve­ments to trans­port: $2 bil­lion for the Levin-Air­port cor­ri­dor will keep traf­fic mov­ing instead of sit­ting in traf­fic jams, emit­ting fumes.
  12.  What will you do to ensure diverse rep­re­sen­ta­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
    As a one man melt­ing pot of assort­ed British Isles, Por­tuguese and Maori ances­try I hope to add fur­ther diver­si­ty to our Par­lia­ment as Mem­ber for Welling­ton Cen­tral.
  13. What’s your per­son­al his­to­ry of liv­ing in Welling­ton?
    I’ve lived all my work­ing life in Welling­ton, in Thorn­don, Karori, Mount Vic­to­ria and Te Aro, except for a three-year assign­ment to the Mid­dle East.
  14.  What pol­i­cy of your par­ty do you think will have the most impact on Welling­ton?
    Our eco­nom­ic poli­cies will cre­ate a more vibrant, dynam­ic econ­o­my with more jobs, growth, smart indus­tries (e.g. the ICT sec­tor) and bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for young Welling­to­ni­ans.
  15.  Do you gen­uine­ly believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a par­ty cam­paign?
    We need your par­ty vote for Nation­al. But I believe can also be a strong voice in the John Key-led gov­ern­ment and next MP for Welling­ton Cen­tral.