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?
    My name is Gor­don Copeland and I am the Con­ser­v­a­tive Can­di­date for Hutt South. I am mar­ried to Anne and we have 5 adult chil­dren. I was a Mem­ber of …
  2. You have 30 sec­onds to con­vince some­one to come to Welling­ton. What’s your pitch?
    My vision is for New Zealand to become a great nation based on good val­ues. I’m a con­ser­v­a­tive because I believe that time test­ed, evi­dence based val­ues are the foun­da­tion …
  3. Where do you stand on the issue of open­ing up gov­ern­ment data?
    I believe that, except in mat­ters of nation­al secu­ri­ty or those before the courts, all gov­ern­ment infor­ma­tion should be open to the pub­lic.
  4. Describe your bicy­cle, or your favourite bus route?
    I take the bus every day from Mira­mar to the rail­way sta­tion so I guess is has to rank as my favourite, espe­cial­ly the Mira­mar Heights route with its spec­tac­u­lar …
  5. When did you last use the library, a com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre, or a coun­cil-run sports facil­i­ty?
    My wife uses the library con­stant­ly — at the Mira­mar and Kil­birnie and Cen­tral branch­es — and keeps me sup­plied with some great read­ing.
  6. Would you wel­come a cen­tral gov­ern­ment dri­ven “super-city” amal­ga­ma­tion of local author­i­ties?
    Only if amal­ga­ma­tion was what the peo­ple of the greater Welling­ton region vot­ed for in a ref­er­en­dum. Bind­ing ref­er­en­da are a cen­tral plank for the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty.
  7. What city inspires your vision for Welling­ton? How?
    For me Welling­ton is a unique­ly beau­ti­ful and ener­gis­ing city with­out peer and is a vision­ary leader, not a fol­low­er.
  8. Is the con­cept of demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion impor­tant to you? How so?
    Very. I am dis­mayed that suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments have under­mined our democ­ra­cy by refus­ing to imple­ment the major­i­ty view as expressed through ref­er­en­da. The voice of the peo­ple is para­mount; hence …
  9. What achieve­ment for Welling­ton are you most proud of?
    Suc­cess­ful­ly per­suad­ing the Coun­cil that the bal­lot papers for our STV local body elec­tions should list the can­di­dates ran­dom­ly. The first elec­tion using the STV sys­tem was a deba­cle, with …
  10. What role do you think cen­tral gov­ern­ment should play in local roading/public trans­port issues?
    The lead role in rela­tion to state high­ways and “main trunk” rail­ways, into and through cities and a part­ner­ship role (with coun­cils), in rela­tion to local roads and rail­ways.
  11. How can we make Welling­ton more envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly?
    I would start with the small things in adopt­ing a “clean” vision in respect of our road frontages, streets, gar­dens and parks cou­pled with the pro­tec­tion of our birds and …
  12. What will you do to ensure diverse rep­re­sen­ta­tion on gov­ern­ment issues?
    The Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty is will­ing to work with who­ev­er the peo­ple chose, in the for­ma­tion of a gov­ern­ment .We sup­port MMP.
  13. What’s your per­son­al his­to­ry of liv­ing in Welling­ton?
    Although born in Nel­son I have made Welling­ton my home since 1962. Through­out that time I have worked in the City, but lived for 22 year in Low­er Hutt. I …
  14. What pol­i­cy of your par­ty do you think will have the most impact on Welling­ton?
    Rais­ing the drink­ing age, abol­ish­ing the Emis­sion Trad­ing Scheme, remov­ing the ban on smack­ing, keep­ing our assets, address­ing fam­i­ly break­down, resti­tu­tion for the vic­tims of crime and fair­er tax­es.
  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’m tar­get­ing both but, since Col­in Craig, leader of the Con­ser­v­a­tive Par­ty will, accord­ing to the polls, win Rod­ney a Par­ty Vote for the Con­ser­v­a­tives will bring addi­tion­al MPs into …