NewstalkZB host Nick Mills interviews Wellington mayoral candidate Tory Whanau. Video / Mark Mitchell
Wellington mayoral candidate Tory Whanau says she can put her Green politics to one side, is open to a new car park building, and has accused another candidate of breaking the rules.
Whanau joined Newstalk ZB Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills for an hour on air this morning as the race for the city's top job heats up.
Her fellow mayoral competitors will feature on the show at the same time tomorrow and on Thursday.
Whanau has accused rival Paul Eagle of claiming the best spots for election hoardings by installing empty frames before they were allowed to go up on Friday at midnight.
"I was a touch annoyed mainly because it's such a hard ask for volunteers to put their signs up for their candidates," she told Mills.
"I had a team of about 20 and just to kind of see someone reserve spots and blatantly break the rules, it's a bummer for them I was angry for them mainly.
Tory said she had photographic evidence.
Eagle's campaign spokeswoman Georgina Stylianou said these allegations were not true.
Frames and posts were dropped off by Eagle and his volunteers at all 29 public sites on Friday from first thing until midnight, Stylianou said.
"A volunteer crew constructed the frames in the Lambton and Onslow-Western wards after midnight. The corflute arrived from the factory around 11pm.
"After unpacking it, Paul personally went out with additional volunteers around 1.30am and put these on the frames in the Onslow-Western ward only."
Local body election hoardings in Seatoun on Sunday. Photo / Georgina Campbell
Stylianou said the frames for all other wards were installed during the day on Saturday by the same volunteer crew.
On Sunday, Eagle applied the corflutes with volunteers on most of the sites, she said.
"We are not aware of any volunteers erecting framing early."
But Stylianou did say some of the material that Eagle left on the sites "disappeared".
Asked whether Whanau had a bit of a problem with Eagle, she said she would like to think they had a "brotherly sisterly rivalry".
"Paul and I are mates and I think that's probably why I feel quite comfortable in calling him out every now and then because we get on so well."
Whanau believed she was among the top three mayoral candidates because she announced her candidacy so early on, which has given people time to get to know her and be considered a serious contender.
Even though she is running as an independent, she said she has made no secret about her support for the Green Party, which has endorsed her campaign.
She said the party's policies around a circular economy, the planet, and people aligned with her values.
But she also said she was someone who could put her politics aside.
"Be pragmatic, and just collaborate, negotiate, and make things work - bring a team together to get things done.
"People have this perception that Green politicians can't do that. That's something I reject and something that I can definitely prove wrong if I were to win the mayoralty."
Asked whether former Green mayor Celia Wade-Brown's legacy could hurt Whanau's campaign, she said she hoped it wouldn't.
Labour Party MP for Rongotai Paul Eagle is running for Wellington's mayoralty. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Whanau acknowledged Wade had been tarnished by the Island Bay cycleway, but also said a lot of people did love her.
"Greens are usually a little ahead of their time and perhaps probably push environmental policies a little too soon than what people are ready for. That's where I think a lot of the frustration might have gone to.
"The mayoralty is hard, politics is hard, especially for women. I would never throw her under the bus and I appreciate the pathway that she's actually possibly set for me to actually run."
Asked whether she was pro-cars, Whanau said she owned a car.
"I'm pro whatever transport that people need to get around, for some people that includes cars and that is okay."
Whanau said she was aware the city had lost a lot of car parks recently, especially parking buildings in the wake of the Kaikōura earthquake.
"I want to look for a compromise here, whether that's a new car parking building so we can build up and you can utilise the street for other things, I'm certainly very open to exploring that."
The Reading Cinema car park was demolished after the Kaikōura earthquake and the main building was subsequently closed. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Whanau wants "low traffic neighbourhoods" so kids can play safely, cycleways can be better used, and people can make the most of their communities.
She said this wasn't "going against cars".
But when pressed what she meant by low traffic neighbourhoods, she admitted they would equate to "low cars."
Whanau's flagship policy is to deliver a new major urban revitalisation project between Wellington's waterfront and the hospital, including Kent Tce and Cambridge Tce.
She wants to use the Urban Development Act to designate the area as a specified development project.
