We asked the ques­tions, they answered.

1. What should the council’s role be in cre­at­ing afford­able hous­ing?

Wel­ling­ton City Coun­cil needs to work with developers to cre­ate more through a com­bin­a­tion of intens­i­fic­a­tion in our inner-city and open­ing land for devel­op­ment.

2. What one pro­ject for Wel­ling­ton have you been most act­ive on so far?

As a volun­teer at Zeal­and­ia, I am proud to be work­ing with mem­bers of the Wel­ling­ton com­munity to raise aware­ness around pro­tect­ing NZ’s nat­ur­al her­it­age.

3. What pro­ject do you plan to cham­pi­on most if you win this pos­i­tion?

Over­haul the City Council’s com­mu­nic­a­tions and social media port­fo­lio.
Eg, I want to see Social Media being used to increase engage­ment with our com­munity

4. What’s your opin­ion on the pro­posed new bus routes?

While more bus fre­quency and easi­er to under­stand timetables is a big plus, I feel there are still some areas being under­ser­viced, espe­cially on week­ends

5. What’s your opin­ion on Cycle­ways?

Cyc­ling is an excel­lent activ­ity for fam­il­ies, I am for the con­struc­tion of Cycle­ways in Wel­ling­ton, when they are built well.

6. What’s your opin­ion on the air­port exten­sion?

As it stands, I am opposed to the fund­ing of the run­way exten­sion.

7. Who is the biggest donat­or to your cam­paign?

A num­ber of res­taur­ants and cafes have sup­por­ted me with food and drink, espe­cially cof­fee (which I have found to be the best dona­tion).

8. Which NZ politi­cian do you most admire?

Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson

9. What do you think needs to hap­pen to the Town Hall?

A grand, beau­ti­ful build­ing, such as the Town Hall, should nev­er be left vacant and derel­ict. It must be reopened to the pub­lic ASAP.

10. How long have you lived in the area you are stand­ing for?

I have been liv­ing in my cur­rent home now, in Mount Vic­tor­ia, for two and a half years.

11. What’s one thing from the 2013–2016 Coun­cil term you think was really great and why?

The increas­ing of our inter­na­tion­al city part­ner­ships and eco­nom­ic ties. For example, build­ing closer trade rela­tion­ships with cit­ies such as Can­berra and Xi’an.

12. What do you think of the Auck­land Unit­ary Plan and what can Wel­ling­ton learn from it?

I believe the Auck­land Unit­ary plan to be an excel­lent idea for cre­at­ing a cohes­ive growth plan across the entire met­ro­pol­it­an stretch of Auck­land.

13. What’s the biggest risk Wel­ling­ton faces in the next ten years?

The biggest issues which must be addressed in Wel­ling­ton are our sus­cept­ib­il­ity to nat­ur­al dis­asters and an increase in afford­able hous­ing.

14. How will you work with the rest of the coun­cil to achieve the things you’re set­ting out to do?

Work­ing on Coun­cil is simply a case of put­ting aside the ego, tak­ing into account everyone’s view­points, estab­lish­ing com­prom­ise when neces­sary, and push­ing through.

15. Who do you nom­in­ate for Wel­ling­tonista Wel­ling­to­ni­an of the Year (assum­ing we run the TAWAs again)?

I would nom­in­ate Tash Keddy.
Wel­ling­ton-born, Shorty act­or cur­rently holds an import­ant place in nor­m­al­ising equal­ity and rais­ing under­stand­ing of Trans issues here in NZ.