She’s acknowledged herQ+A interview “did not go well”, blaming exhaustion and letting her guard down
Whanau has also discussed “breaking the law” to avoid holding a referendum on Wellington City Council’s decision to keep its Māori ward
Tory Whanau has admitted she made a “mistake” when talking about selling her car and has accepted her interview on TVNZ’s Q+A “did not go well”, blaming exhaustion.
Wellington’s mayor has also spoken about “breaking the law” to avoid holding a Māori Ward referendum, something she believes the public is “overwhelmingly supportive” of.
Whanau spoke to The BFG podcast on Friday night, just hours after sitting down to record her Q+A interview with Jack Tame.
That interview has since been slammed as “terrible” and “confusing” after she contradicted herself on the reasons for selling her car, muddled her message on selling airport shares, and called fellow councillors “riff raff”.
Whanau starts the podcast interview, titled Behind the Walls: Angela O’Leary and Tory Whanau, by acknowledging it had been a “challenging week”.
“Today was challenging. I had an interview with Jack Tame that will come out on Sunday that did not go well.
“He’s interviewed me before and he was tough then as well, and he was really tough today. And look he did his job, I think I was just exhausted, I let my guard down and it usually just takes one moment, one mistake and then it all goes downhill from there which is what happened.”
Whanau was then asked how she looks after her mental health when things get tough.
She acknowledged last year was hard, with headlines about her personal life dominating the media. She said her mental health took a hit, and she had to change things up so she wouldn’t “fail Wellington City with silly mistakes”.
She said she was almost thankful now to have gone through it and built resilience.
“[It] Enabled me to think about my drinking, become diagnosed with ADHD and become a lot healthier physically and mentally.”
Whanau said this year had been “solid”, and she’d been trying to keep her head down and focus on getting the Long-term Plan (LTP) through.
“So when I make little slip-ups about selling my car, which is so unintentional, I do beat myself up a little bit about that. Because I just got through that year and got things back on track and I don’t want to make ... silly little mistakes really disappoint me.”
In an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Wellington Mornings, Whanau told host Nick Mills she had recently sold her car to “kinda help pay the bills”. It was in response to a question about whether she was “actually feeling” Wellington’s economic downturn.
“I walk to work again, my mortgage rates have doubled in the past few years. So I’m feeling the crunch as well, but I also recognise the privilege that I have.”
Tory Whanau told Wellington Mornings host Nick Mills she'd recently sold her car to help pay the bills. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In the podcast, Whanau reveals more about how the intense scrutiny on her life affects her.
“I kinda thought that mayors flew under the radar a lot more which is why I kinda went for council in the first place.
“The public interest side, the news side of things has completely blindsided me, I didn’t expect that. That’s been a huge learning curve and while the majority of it was quite negative, actually now I can utilise some of that profile and journalism interest to highlight the issues of Wellington.”
Whanau goes on to say she seeks advice from her friends, a lot of whom “worked for Dame Jacinda Ardern”.
“I’ll ask them, is this normal? Is this level of negativity normal? And they’ll say yeah, unfortunately. When you’re a progressive politician, especially a woman, especially Māori, you just have to unfortunately get used to this level.
“What’s important to me is if I let that affect me, if I fail - they win. Those who are pushing against progressive change. And when I see negativity against me, the anti-cycleway stuff, when I see rumours picked up about me by media that are meant to be dehumanising, all I see that as is the privileged trying to stop progress.”
Whanau says she speaks to “a lot of leaders from around the world” and they agree that this is what a “transformational and transitional period looks like and sounds like”.
Tory Whanau discusses ‘breaking the law’ on Māori wards
During the podcast, Hamilton Deputy Mayor Angela O’Leary joins with attention turning to Māori wards.
Whanau is asked whether Wellington City Council is paying for its referendum on Māori wards.
“It’s correct, we haven’t put it in this budget, the LTP, on purpose. But we’ll be forced to put it in our next annual plan. We’re still seeking legal advice on how we can challenge this but it’s not looking great.”
Whanau is asked what the punishment is if they don’t hold a referendum.
“We’ve asked that and been told that’s essentially breaking the law. That might be a fine, and we’re like, well what’s the fine?”
Angela O’Leary says yes, Hamilton City Council will be paying for theirs, and aren’t considering breaking the law.
“We’ll pay for ours, we don’t have the budget either but will move through that process at the annual plan. We haven’t gone so far as deciding whether or having a discussion whether we would break the law. You know it is legislation and we have to follow it.”
In terms of feedback from the public, O’Leary says it has quietened down a bit now they’ve voted to keep their Māori ward.
Whanau says Wellington is a very progressive city, “so it’s been overwhelmingly positive, overwhelmingly supportive for any challenge that we might want to put up including - breaking the law”.
“But I tend to take my guidance from mana whenua and our iwi leaders. It has to be mana-enhancing and we have to create unity were possible and give as much respect to Te Tiriti as possible.
“Whether it’s in my head or not, I sometimes feel like Wellington City has a bit of a target on its back when it comes to the Government and so I have to be very careful not to enrage them or they’ll send in commissioners ‘cos that’s the threat that is used on a weekly basis.
“So for Māori rights I’m tempted to do that, but I have to think about the betterment of Wellington City and not my own passions.”
In a statement, Tory Whanau’s office said “the Mayor was not inferring that we should disregard the changes handed down from central government.
“She was highlighting that there have been calls from some in the community to disregard the referendum, but that her position is that we must take our guidance from mana whenua, particularly on this issue.
“The advice from them has been to proceed with a referendum (that we strongly believe will see Wellingtonians vote to retain the ward), rather than the alternative, which was to vote to disestablish the Māori ward.”
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown also provided a statement, saying he expects all elected members to obey the law when conducting their duties as elected representatives.
“The changes to the Local Electoral Act 2001 made through the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2024 require councils that resolve to retain their Māori wards to also hold a poll on Māori wards at the 2025 elections.”
He said resolving to retain Māori wards and not hold a poll is not an available option under the legislation.
