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 James Shaw and I want Wel­ling­ton to show New Zea­l­and and the world what it takes to have a smart, green eco­nomy that works for every­one.

2.       You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?
Moun­tains with winter snow. Beaches with sum­mer sun. The best cof­fee in the world. Theatre. Movies. Night­life. Gor­geous Vic­tori­an vil­las perched on tree-covered hills. A place like no oth­er.

3.       Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
I’m for it.

4.       Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route?
I live in the Aro Val­ley up a steep hill – my moun­tain bike is sadly gath­er­ing dust whilst I walk. Every­where I need is at most 20 minutes.

5.       When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?
I used St. John’s Hall in Karori for an August meet­ing. It’s pretty run­down, sadly. There is a plan for a new Karori Com­munity Centre, but it needs fund­ing.

6.       Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies?
No, the cit­ies in our region are very dis­tinct. But we should give some thought to how bet­ter to coordin­ate between the loc­al and region­al author­it­ies.

7.       What city inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?
Van­couver, which is sim­il­ar in many ways. Van­couver makes the most of its urb­an design and trans­port to make it more of, “a place where tal­ent wants to live”.

8.       Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you? How so?
Very. I believe that the House of Rep­res­ent­at­ives should be, well, rep­res­ent­at­ive of the coun­try. It has become much more so since we intro­duced MMP.

9.       What achieve­ment for Wel­ling­ton are you most proud of?
In my adult life the city has become an inter­na­tion­al centre of the film industry with some of the world’s top tal­ent choos­ing to life and work here.

10.   What role do you think cent­ral gov­ern­ment should play in loc­al roading/public trans­port issues?
Stop black­mail­ing loc­al and region­al coun­cils to accept motor­ways they don’t want  and help them build the light rail, loc­al road and cycle­ways they do want!

11.   How can we make Wel­ling­ton more envir­on­ment­ally friendly?
Insu­late our homes and ret­ro­fit them with sol­ar and wind tur­bines to provide their own heat and power. Use gov­ern­ment pro­cure­ment to accel­er­ate adop­tion of elec­tric vehicles.

12.   What will you do to ensure diverse rep­res­ent­a­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
In my pro­fes­sion­al life I bring very diverse stake­hold­ers togeth­er to col­lab­or­ate on dif­fi­cult chal­lenges. I would aim to do the same on issues I work on in Par­lia­ment.

13.   What’s your per­son­al his­tory of liv­ing in Wel­ling­ton?
I was born in Wel­ling­ton Hos­pit­al, edu­cated at Scots Col­lege Primary, Wel­ling­ton High School and Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity. We grew up in the Aro Val­ley where I again live today.

14.   What policy of your party do you think will have the most impact on Wel­ling­ton?
Wel­ling­ton will bene­fit in par­tic­u­lar from our ‘Green Jobs’ pack­age, which will sig­ni­fic­antly boost our R&D in clean-tech indus­tries, export­ers of renew­able energy ser­vices, and small busi­ness.

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 no.15 on the Greens’ list, I have a good chance of rep­res­ent­ing my home town in Par­lia­ment if you give your Party Vote to the Greens.