1. Who are you and what do you want?

I’m Paul Fos­ter-Bell, the Nation­al Can­di­date for Welling­ton Cen­tral, and I want to keep Welling­ton and NZ mov­ing in the right direc­tion.

  1. What makes you dif­fer­ent?

I can be a strong voice from with­in the next John Key-led Nation­al Gov­ern­ment. I have use­ful skills gained work­ing with MFAT in the Mid­dle East.

  1. What do you love or hate most about Welling­ton

I love the har­bour, the water­front, the Town Belt and the sheer cre­ativ­i­ty of Welling­to­ni­ans in film, the­atre, music and busi­ness.

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

The biggest land­lord in Welling­ton is the City Coun­cil and I will strong­ly sup­port the Gov­ern­ment part­ner­ing with third sec­tor play­ers to improve rentals.

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

It would have sus­tained growth gen­er­at­ing more and high­er pay­ing jobs in inno­va­tion, the cre­ative sec­tor, edu­ca­tion, and high tech exports — along­side our tra­di­tion­al indus­tries.

  1. “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)

I want to ensure every­one gets a fair go to get a foot on the lad­der. Most young peo­ple have no expec­ta­tion of doing a sin­gle job for life.

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

I believe in equal oppor­tu­ni­ty. Edu­ca­tion is the key to oppor­tu­ni­ty, so I sup­port the 20 hours ECE for all kids and invest­ment of $357m to boost NCEA pass rates.

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

Help­ing fam­i­lies off wel­fare and into work, and free doctor’s vis­its and pre­scrip­tions for under-13 are just some.

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

Our film sec­tor poli­cies pre­vent­ed major screen pro­duc­tions leav­ing Welling­ton, we have backed the NZSO and Te Papa, and we can keep busi­ness­es by invest­ing in infra­struc­ture like Trans­mis­sion Gul­ly.

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

That sex­ism actu­al­ly hurts every­body. Women bring huge val­ue to busi­ness boards.

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

I would leave it up to the pub­lic to decide how our sys­tem is struc­tured. Politi­cians shouldn’t be allowed to set the sys­tem for their own ben­e­fit.

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

I would sup­port an enquiry where there is ille­gal­i­ty. Not just because some­one doesn’t like the ‘style’ of pol­i­tics prac­tised. I focus on pol­i­cy rather than pol­i­tics, myself.

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

I have lived in Welling­ton since leav­ing uni­ver­si­ty: in Thorn­don, West Karori, Mt Vic and Te Aro.  Though with my pre­vi­ous career I spent peri­ods over­seas.

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

Keep­ing the Government’s accounts in sur­plus will help keep inter­est rates low­er. Our hous­ing pol­i­cy will let many young Welling­to­ni­ans get into their own first home.

15. Do you gen­uine­ly believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a par­ty cam­paign?

Yes, I am ask­ing for two ticks because NZ needs a Nation­al Gov­ern­ment and Welling­ton Cen­tral deserves fresh rep­re­sen­ta­tion.