How the Green Party took control of the Wellington City Council
Soon after the 2022 local government elections, Wellington city councillors met and the Mayor, newly elected Tory Whanau, revealed the appointments to the various sub-committees.
Little thought was placed on experience or skills. The chairs of the committees went to the Mayor’s supporters – those who ran on Green Party and Labour Party tickets.
Few outside the inner circle would have comprehended the impact of the appointments being made. Nor would they have understood the long-term ramifications.
On that day, the Green Party of Aotearoa – the same ones who wear the clothing of Hamas terrorists in Parliament – took control of the Wellington City Council, usurped local democracy and began to manipulate the decision-making process to push through a party ideology that would ultimately strip the city of its vibrancy in a few short years.
The Green Party has been involved in council and the organisation for years. But now they had another Mayor, plus a majority of Green Party and Labour Party councillors.
It was a local government coup d’état and many Wellington residents don’t even realise it’s happened.
The rate of decline in Wellington city has shocked many people, especially business owners who’ve seen adequate access to previously bustling destination areas, like Thorndon Quay, completely removed and replaced with cycle lanes. The Mayor claims business closures and the fall in business confidence is related to “short-term transition” from a city that relies on fossil-fuel-run vehicles to one in which “pedestrianisation” and cycle lanes along with fewer car parks are the norm. (Those wet and very windy days are figments of people’s imaginations, we guess!)
Wellington residents know the city has been captured by the Green Party and its ideology. It stretches back to Celia Wade Brown’s time as Mayor, although the activism has taken on a more extreme anti-business, anti-vehicle, pro-climate change stance as the Green Party itself has become more extreme. As stated, their support of Hamas terrorists illustrates the point.
It is beyond debate that the cycle ways are destroying Wellington. After messing up Island Bay (which was actively promulgated and pushed by Green Party list MP Julie Anne Genter) the idealists came for Newtown and Adelaide Road, the mess that is Cambridge Terrace and the undeniable business killer of Thorndon Quay.
And in the face of strong opposition from businesses and residents in Thorndon, they’ve destroyed Molesworth and Murphy streets.
The Greens have pushed hard on this rapid roll-out of cycleways and have used a very small but vocal minority of cyclists to advance the cause. Councillors who opposed it have been too weak or uncommitted enough to stop it. The result is a city in rapid decline.
Julie Anne Genter has been a major instrument of destruction over the Wellington economy when she was Minister overseeing NZTA (or Waka Kotahi) when Labour was in power. Genter made sure that money was funnelled into the right direction to advance her ideology. She ensured that Wellington would yield to her plan. Business was expendable.
When Tory was elected Mayor, the Green Party made sure that key people were also put into positions of influence at the Council. It was the Greens and in particular Chloe Swarbrick who insisted that Nadine Walker was employed as Chief of Staff. Tory acquiesced.
Wellington residents are well and truly joining the dots. They knew it was occurring but the results are now in their face. And our city is but collateral damage.
The take over was complete with democracy being usurped at all levels of council.
Better Wellingtons’ over-riding principle is party politics doesn’t belong around the council table.
Knowledge is Power / Vote For Change
Long-Term Plan Committee
The Long-Term Plan Committee is charged with decisions to meet the legislative requirements for a long-term plan around which the council can budget for the future. It was set up with delegated authority and included two, unelected iwi representatives who are permitted to vote on it. Delegating authority to the LTP committee was a deliberate move by the Mayor, with advice from council staff. This move gave the Green Party the two extra votes. Post-election 2022, the Greens knew the majority was slim, and used the law to ensure they maintained momentum. Their views on Māori sovereignty would align with the iwi representatives, guaranteeing they wouldn’t deviate from the Green Party’s course of action. It was ultimately a cynical attempt to circumvent the full council from having effective control and the final decision.
The push for non-elected Iwi votes
We’ve written about the Green and Labour parties’ push to allow for unelected iwi representatives to have full voting rights on the council. Again, similarly with the LTP Committee, this is deliberately done to ensure that the political ideology continues, at the expense of democracy.
The CEO Performance Review Committee
The process is underway to find a new CEO for the council. The “CEO Performance Review” committee is tasked with short-listing candidates. The Committee is made up of Tory Whanau (Green Party), Laurie Foon (Green Party), Teri O’Neill (Labour Party and self-confessed “activist”), Rebecca Matthews (Labour Party) and Tim Brown (supposedly independent but never voted against the Mayor and with conflict of interest claims hovering around him). The power of the Chief Executive is well known, and it’s important to the Green and the Labour parties that there is a “like-minded” manager at the top of the organisation.
Winter of Discontent