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?
I’m James Shaw and I want Welling­ton to show New Zealand and the world what it takes to have a smart, green econ­o­my that works for every­one.

2.       You have 30 sec­onds to con­vince some­one to come to Welling­ton. What’s your pitch?
Moun­tains with win­ter snow. Beach­es with sum­mer sun. The best cof­fee in the world. The­atre. Movies. Nightlife. Gor­geous Vic­to­ri­an vil­las perched on tree-cov­ered hills. A place like no oth­er.

3.       Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
I’m for it.

4.       Describe your bicy­cle, or your favourite bus route?
I live in the Aro Val­ley up a steep hill – my moun­tain bike is sad­ly gath­er­ing dust whilst I walk. Every­where I need is at most 20 min­utes.

5.       When did you last use the library, a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­i­ty?
I used St. John’s Hall in Karori for an August meet­ing. It’s pret­ty run­down, sad­ly. There is a plan for a new Karori Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, but it needs fund­ing.

6.       Would you wel­come a cen­tral gov­ern­ment dri­ven “super-city” amal­ga­ma­tion of local author­i­ties?
No, the cities in our region are very dis­tinct. But we should give some thought to how bet­ter to coor­di­nate between the local and region­al author­i­ties.

7.       What city inspires your vision for Welling­ton? How?
Van­cou­ver, which is sim­i­lar in many ways. Van­cou­ver makes the most of its urban design and trans­port to make it more of, “a place where tal­ent wants to live”.

8.       Is the con­cept of demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion impor­tant to you? How so?
Very. I believe that the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives should be, well, rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the coun­try. It has become much more so since we intro­duced MMP.

9.       What achieve­ment for Welling­ton are you most proud of?
In my adult life the city has become an inter­na­tion­al cen­tre of the film indus­try with some of the world’s top tal­ent choos­ing to life and work here.

10.   What role do you think cen­tral gov­ern­ment should play in local roading/public trans­port issues?
Stop black­mail­ing local and region­al coun­cils to accept motor­ways they don’t want  and help them build the light rail, local road and cycle­ways they do want!

11.   How can we make Welling­ton more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly?
Insu­late our homes and retro­fit them with solar and wind tur­bines to pro­vide their own heat and pow­er. Use gov­ern­ment pro­cure­ment to accel­er­ate adop­tion of elec­tric vehi­cles.

12.   What will you do to ensure diverse rep­re­sen­ta­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
In my pro­fes­sion­al life I bring very diverse stake­hold­ers togeth­er to col­lab­o­rate on dif­fi­cult chal­lenges. I would aim to do the same on issues I work on in Par­lia­ment.

13.   What’s your per­son­al his­to­ry of liv­ing in Welling­ton?
I was born in Welling­ton Hos­pi­tal, edu­cat­ed at Scots Col­lege Pri­ma­ry, Welling­ton High School and Vic­to­ria Uni­ver­si­ty. We grew up in the Aro Val­ley where I again live today.

14.   What pol­i­cy of your par­ty do you think will have the most impact on Welling­ton?
Welling­ton will ben­e­fit in par­tic­u­lar from our ‘Green Jobs’ pack­age, which will sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost our R&D in clean-tech indus­tries, exporters of renew­able ener­gy ser­vices, and small busi­ness.

15.   Do you gen­uine­ly believe you have a chance at win­ning the seat you’re con­test­ing, or is this more of a par­ty cam­paign?
At no.15 on the Greens’ list, I have a good chance of rep­re­sent­ing my home town in Par­lia­ment if you give your Par­ty Vote to the Greens.