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.