1. Who are you and what do you want?

I’m an Aro Val­ley nat­ive. I want New Zea­l­and to become an eco­nom­ic­ally, socially and eco­lo­gic­ally sus­tain­able role mod­el for the rest of the world to fol­low.

2. What makes you dif­fer­ent?

I’ve had an inter­na­tion­al career in sus­tain­able busi­ness and lead­er­ship devel­op­ment. I’ve worked as a freel­an­cer, in small start-ups and with glob­al com­pan­ies.

3. What do you love or hate most about Wel­ling­ton?

I love the ‘nat­ur­al cap­it­al’ of our hills and har­bour, our her­it­age neigh­bour­hoods and our thriv­ing arts, enter­tain­ment and cul­tur­al pre­cincts around Cuba Street and Cour­tenay Place.

4. What are you going to do about rent­al prop­er­ties and the state they’re in? “ – Amy, Wel­ling­ton Cent­ral (via @Political_Cuts)

We want a War­rant of Fit­ness for all ren­ted houses, $3 mil­lion extra fund­ing to help fam­il­ies tak­ing action against sub­stand­ard rent­al hous­ing, and to insu­late anoth­er 200,000 homes.

5. “If you could re-ima­gine the eco­nomy what would it look like?” – Emma, Wel­ling­ton Cent­ral (via @Political_Cuts)

A ‘cir­cu­lar eco­nomy’, powered by renew­able energy, regen­er­at­ive by design, where bio­lo­gic­al mater­i­als are designed to harm­lessly reenter the bio­sphere, and tech­nic­al mater­i­als recir­cu­late with min­im­al loss of qual­ity.

6. “How would you improve work­ers’ rights in the elect­or­ate and ensure that young people enter into secure, long-term con­tracts?” – Brit­tany, Wel­ling­ton Cent­ral (via @Political_Cuts)

We’d bring in a new min­im­um redund­ancy pack­age of four weeks’ pay; boost bar­gain­ing power and make work­places safer and more and demo­crat­ic; and remove the 90-day tri­al peri­od.

7. “What are you going to do to make NZ more egal­it­ari­an?” – Mike, Ron­go­tai (via @Political_Cuts)

We’d lift the min­im­um wage to $18/hour by 2017; cre­ate a tax-free band on the first $2,000 income; and a new top tax rate of 40% above $140,000.

8. “What are the key things you will do to make things bet­ter for vul­ner­able chil­dren?” – Alis­on, Ron­go­tai (via @Political_Cuts)

A Children’s Cred­it of $60/week extra; a Par­ent­al Tax Cred­it of $220/week in the first weeks of life; and $500 mil­lion per year into children’s health and edu­ca­tion.

9. How do you plan to keep premi­er artists and busi­nesses from flee­ing the Cap­it­al? – ‏@OrchestraWLG

Home to a num­ber of uni­ver­sit­ies, research insti­tutes, ICT and energy com­pan­ies, Wellng­ton will par­tic­u­larly bene­fit from the Greens’ $1b invest­ment in Research & Devel­op­ment.

10. What do you wish your 17 year old self knew about fem­in­ism? @zenpeacekeeper

I wish I’d under­stood what abuse so many of my 17 year old female friends already faced; and what still lay in store for far too many of them.

11. “What would you do to fur­ther improve the electoral/Parliamentary sys­tem in NZ, and to encour­age par­ti­cip­a­tion? – Sam, Wel­ling­ton Cent­ral (via @Political_Cuts)

Remove the one-seat “coat-tail­ing” rule; reform Elec­tion Fin­an­cing; set up a register of Lob­by­ists; pub­lish Cab­in­et decisions on the Inter­net; and sup­port a writ­ten Con­sti­tu­tion.

12. Will you sup­port a full enquiry into #Dir­ty­Po­lit­ics? Will they prac­tice clean polit­ics for them­selves and their parties? – @BevanMcCabe

Yes, yes and yes. I sup­port the Greens’ call for a Roy­al Com­mis­sion; I am com­mit­ted to prac­ti­cing clean polit­ics myself; and I would seek to extend the prac­tice.

13. What’s your per­son­al his­tory of liv­ing in Wel­ling­ton?

I was born in Wel­ling­ton Hos­pit­al and went to Wel­ling­ton High School and Vic­tor­ia Uni­ver­sity. I lived in Lon­don for 12 years, return­ing home to Aro Val­ley in 2010.

14. What policy of your party do you think will have the most impact on Wel­ling­ton?

The Greens’ plan to invest $500 mil­lion over five years upgrad­ing Wellington’s trans­port infra­struc­ture will secure Wellington’s future as a vibrant, people-friendly city “where tal­ent wants to live”.

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 am ask­ing you to Party Vote Green. I’m num­ber 12 on the Green Party List and will be elec­ted if we win over 10% of the Party Vote.