INITIAL POLICY POSITION
The next Local Government elections are in October 2025. This page will highlight our ideas and policies we believe will achieve a Better Wellington. We will build on six Policy Pillars to which we will urge and ask all candidates to support and stand by. These will be added here in due course.
Our initial policies and value statements are:
Wellington City will be better served by councillors who are independent. Party politics doesn’t belong around the council table. Decisions must be made in the best interests of the city; not made along ideological party lines. Councillors can’t serve two masters at the same time: Wellington City must be the priority. Whether it’s Green Party, Labour, National or whatever, Better Wellington rejects all candidates running on a party ticket.
Councillors are to govern. We elect people to lead, not be led. Wellington City needs councillors who are ready, willing and able to make the Council staff accountable to the elected representatives. We don’t want bureaucrats determining the direction of our city!
It’s time to rein in excessive and unnecessary costs. The Council has spent millions of dollars on consultants and bureaucrats. All spending must be re-assessed. Back to the drawing board! Less is more.
Better Wellington seeks a freeze on the employment of new staff and it must cut back on existing staff numbers. Did you know there are 58 staff employed in communications? What do they do? Or 38 staff in the office of Climate Change.
Time to re-think the machine!
Wellington cannot function unless its match-fit and operational. The “nice-to-haves” must be put on hold and instead focus on critical basic infrastructure and services. This must be a priority. The current Council has dropped the ball! Did we really need a $200 million library to be rebuilt when the smaller satellite ones are working well?
The Wellington City Council roading section needs to be reined in … their entire view on people using their private vehicles is out of control and dictated by ideology! The council wants you out of your car. When was the last time a car parking building was approved for construction? How many car parks have been taken out of the city? What has the effect been on our commerce and retail trade? The Golden Mile must remain accessible to taxis, service vehicles, and cars – not only buses and cyclists. If we are to retain the lifeblood of our city we must listen to our retail and hospitality operators and not block off the side streets as proposed.
Wellington City must live within its means. Rates increases kept to a minimum, within annual inflation. Even kept lower when the city is in a better financial position. Fewer taxes makes everyone wealthier.
It is not Wellington ratepayers’ responsibility to pay for social housing. Put that back onto central government. Safety, particularly in the Central Business District, must be paramount. Time to clean up the CBD. Wellingtonians and visitors alike would welcome an inviting environment.
All work on cycle lanes must cease and re-evaluated. Cycle ways must not be at the expense of vehicle car parks. Do cycle lanes really need to be on main thoroughfares?
Only a positive, cohesive Council will yield a multicultural, desirable future; a city within which everyone is pleased to live and work.