Commemoration vs Celebration
Over the last week, Wellington has been the focus of an Anzac Day like no other. The long-awaited Pukeahu National War Memorial Park opened with a “spectacular” light show, and on Friday the city stopped to cheer a “spectacular” Anzac parade (paging Guy Debord!). This was followed by a huge turnout for the dawn service on […]
Are you Super? Will you Submit
The local government commission has proposed a reorganisation of the Wellington region, which you can read more about over on the local government commission site. The regional council is split over the proposal. Perhaps more importantly, according to Stuff, only 26% of Wellingtonians are in favour of the proposal. We’re not taking a side here […]
Party Together
The election may be done and dusted, and a new Parliament sworn in, but the post mortems will continue in many political circles. We now have detailed voting records from every booth in the country, and while some aspects of booth data are problematic (see the technical notes below for some provisos), it’s the finest level of electoral data we […]
Voting Weather
There are signs that this election could have a good turnout. Advance voting is about twice what it was at the same stage in the last two elections, and there have been over 35,000 new enrolments since I posted about poor enrolment figures: nearly 1500 in Wellington Central alone! However, one thing that can still put […]
Bring Back Kate – March on Monday
On average the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges receive one call for help every nine minutes. From July 2013 to June 2014 the Shakti national crisis line service exceeded 10,000 calls. Bring Back Kate is Women’s Refuge’s latest call to action on domestic violence in New Zealand. In 1893 Kate Shepherd and a band of […]
Elections 2014: Tane Woodley for Ohariu
Who are you and what do you want? I’m Tane Woodley, Green party candidate for Ohariu. I want a pint of chocolate porter. Also, a fairer society, a cleaner environment and a smarter economy. What makes you different? I’m a human, that makes me different to everyone. I am a soldier in the Greens, so […]
Election 2014: Grant Robertson for Wellington Central
1. Who are you and what do you want? I’m Grant Robertson, MP for Wellington Central. I want a better New Zealand- and your Party Vote for Labour, and electorate vote to carry on working for our community. 2. What makes you different? In terms of being MP my point of difference is that I’m already doing […]
Elections 2014: James Shaw for Wellington Central
1. Who are you and what do you want? I’m an Aro Valley native. I want New Zealand to become an economically, socially and ecologically sustainable role model for the rest of the world to follow. 2. What makes you different? I’ve had an international career in sustainable business and leadership development. I’ve worked as […]
Elections 2014: Paul Foster Bell for Wellington Central
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. 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 […]
Wellington candidates – we’ve heard from you
We put together fifteen questions we wanted answers for from anyone running for Parliament in the Wellington region. Four candidates got back to us before our deadline. Here’s what they told us. Wellington Central Paul Foster Bell’s answers James Shaw’s Answers Grant Robertson’s answers Ōhāriu Tane Woodley’s answers