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?
    My name is Gor­don Cope­land and I am the Con­ser­vat­ive Can­did­ate for Hutt South. I am mar­ried to Anne and we have 5 adult chil­dren. I was a Mem­ber of …
  2. You have 30 seconds to con­vince someone to come to Wel­ling­ton. What’s your pitch?
    My vis­ion is for New Zea­l­and to become a great nation based on good val­ues. I’m a con­ser­vat­ive because I believe that time tested, evid­ence based val­ues are the found­a­tion …
  3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
    I believe that, except in mat­ters of nation­al secur­ity or those before the courts, all gov­ern­ment inform­a­tion should be open to the pub­lic.
  4. Describe your bicycle, or your favour­ite bus route?
    I take the bus every day from Miramar to the rail­way sta­tion so I guess is has to rank as my favour­ite, espe­cially the Miramar Heights route with its spec­tac­u­lar …
  5. When did you last use the lib­rary, a com­munity centre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­ity?
    My wife uses the lib­rary con­stantly – at the Miramar and Kil­birnie and Cent­ral branches – and keeps me sup­plied with some great read­ing.
  6. Would you wel­come a cent­ral gov­ern­ment driv­en “super-city” amal­gam­a­tion of loc­al author­it­ies?
    Only if amal­gam­a­tion was what the people of the great­er Wel­ling­ton region voted for in a ref­er­en­dum. Bind­ing ref­er­enda are a cent­ral plank for the Con­ser­vat­ive Party.
  7. What city inspires your vis­ion for Wel­ling­ton? How?
    For me Wel­ling­ton is a uniquely beau­ti­ful and ener­gising city without peer and is a vis­ion­ary lead­er, not a fol­low­er.
  8. Is the concept of demo­crat­ic rep­res­ent­a­tion import­ant to you? How so?
    Very. I am dis­mayed that suc­cess­ive gov­ern­ments have under­mined our demo­cracy by refus­ing to imple­ment the major­ity view as expressed through ref­er­enda. The voice of the people is para­mount; hence …
  9. What achieve­ment for Wel­ling­ton are you most proud of?
    Suc­cess­fully per­suad­ing the Coun­cil that the bal­lot papers for our STV loc­al body elec­tions should list the can­did­ates ran­domly. The first elec­tion using the STV sys­tem was a debacle, with …
  10. What role do you think cent­ral gov­ern­ment should play in loc­al roading/public trans­port issues?
    The lead role in rela­tion to state high­ways and “main trunk” rail­ways, into and through cit­ies and a part­ner­ship role (with coun­cils), in rela­tion to loc­al roads and rail­ways.
  11. How can we make Wel­ling­ton more envir­on­ment­ally friendly?
    I would start with the small things in adopt­ing a “clean” vis­ion in respect of our road front­ages, streets, gar­dens and parks coupled with the pro­tec­tion of our birds and …
  12. What will you do to ensure diverse rep­res­ent­a­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
    The Con­ser­vat­ive Party is will­ing to work with who­ever the people chose, in the form­a­tion of a gov­ern­ment .We sup­port MMP.
  13. What’s your per­son­al his­tory of liv­ing in Wel­ling­ton?
    Although born in Nel­son I have made Wel­ling­ton my home since 1962. Through­out that time I have worked in the City, but lived for 22 year in Lower Hutt. I …
  14. What policy of your party do you think will have the most impact on Wel­ling­ton?
    Rais­ing the drink­ing age, abol­ish­ing the Emis­sion Trad­ing Scheme, remov­ing the ban on smack­ing, keep­ing our assets, address­ing fam­ily break­down, resti­tu­tion for the vic­tims of crime and fairer taxes.
  15. Do you genu­inely believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a party cam­paign?
    I’m tar­get­ing both but, since Colin Craig, lead­er of the Con­ser­vat­ive Party will, accord­ing to the polls, win Rod­ney a Party Vote for the Con­ser­vat­ives will bring addi­tion­al MPs into …