“I did that to help build trust with independent councillors and bring them on board and show them that actually, I can work with any policy and that worked with a few of them. So, I feel now in a second term, I don’t really have to do that again.
“Plus, I am referred to in the public as the Green mayor.”
Last time Tory Whanau ran as an independent endorsed by the Greens, slightly distancing herself in a bid to bring the divided council together. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Asked what she had done to repair her relationship with the Greens, Whanau said she has been meeting with the party a lot more and meeting with the caucus at Parliament to “rebuild those relationships”.
“I found that after nearly a term of being the mayor, this is a very isolating and lonely role and I missed my support system, or the infrastructure, that I had with the Green Party when I was at Parliament. I’m getting that back now and it feels really good.”
Whanau was the party’s chief of staff before she became the mayor.
Tory Whanau on the day she was elected Wellington's mayor with friends and supporters. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Greens are yet to decide whether Whanau will run on the party ticket.
Green Party general manager Miriam Ross said they were following a robust candidate selection process for local body elections which would be similar to previous years.
“Any member who runs as a Green Party candidate goes through the local selection process each term.
“The local candidate selection group is currently working through applications for the different seats on Wellington City Council and we will be able to provide an update once the selection process is complete.”
Whanau accepted it could be difficult to persuade some members to support her again, given she has supported policies like asset sales.
She planned to speak to the membership to further explain that decision and the financial difficulty the council faced, including hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cuts which had to be made without the sale.
“I’ll remind members how difficult that decision was and the difficulty of being in local government and how under-resourced we really are, hence needing to make a decision like that.”
Tory Whanau was elected as Wellington's mayor in 2022. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Whanau was confident she would get the majority required to run on the Green ticket although was “sure there will be some that will be unhappy, and that’s okay”.
She will campaign on maintaining a $1.8 billion investment into water pipes in the council’s budget, more social housing and apartment conversions and pushing ahead with the Golden Mile.
Asked when work would finally start on “revitalising” the Golden Mile and removing private vehicles, Whanau said there would be an announcement on the project next week.
Whanau is resolute about standing again and confident she is up to the job but admitted she wavered towards the end of last year.
But now that Whanau has had a summer break, spent time with family in Taranaki and been buoyed by positivity and reassurance from the public when she’s out and about, she’s certain about running again.
Current Wellington City councillor Ray Chung has also confirmed he is running for the mayoralty.
Predator-free champion Kelvin Hastie has also confirmed his candidacy.
Former Wellington mayor Justin Lester says while he doesn’t intend to run for the city’s top job again, Labour has approached him about his potential candidacy and he’d “never say never”.
Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.
