Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau backtracks on claim she sold car to pay her bills

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has backtracked on a claim she sold her car to pay the bills because of financial pressures.

Whanau, whose mayoral salary is $190,000, told Newstalk ZB earlier this week she was not immune from the cost of living crisis.

“I don’t want to downplay the privilege that I have. I am the mayor of the city, I have a house and I’m very thankful for that.

“However, I’ve just sold my car recently to kind of help pay the bills, 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.”

The mayor was challenged on that claim on TVNZ’s Q+A this morning, with host Jack Tame asking her whether it was true she sold her car to cover her costs.

“No, I actually didn’t,” she said. “It’s a shame because it was taken out of context. It was an hour-long interview. You get a bit relaxed. The main reason, actually, was because it’s a walkable city. I don’t need a car living in the city centre.”

She said the story had been blown out of proportion and become a distraction from the real issues affecting Wellington.

When asked why she raised the issue, she responded: “Come on, Jack, do we really think the public need to know about the reason why I sold my car?”

“What I really want to be talking [about is the high] level of investment that we’ve put into our water infrastructure – $1.8 billion. We have significant transport investment. I’ve delivered over 26km of cycleways across the city. This is really good stuff. My car is just such a blip on this.”

She rejected the suggestion she had misled people or told a lie.

In a statement provided to TVNZ after the interview, her office gave a further clarification: “The mayor sold her car to help with her mortgage, where her weekly repayments had doubled. It also made sense to sell as it was no longer needed as she had moved into a townhouse near the city centre.”

Whanau’s salary rose to $189,799 after a 3.7% pay rise in July. She won $1.4 million through Lotto in 2002.

The Wellington mayor was also forced to correct herself on the issue of selling the council’s Wellington Airport shares.

Whanau initially told Q+A she did not expect to have enough support to sell the shares, which would mean the Long-Term Plan would not be progressed.

“We’ll know for sure on October 10, but I’m pretty confident [the Long Term Plan] ... would become unviable,” she said. “I think it will be pretty devastating.”

Whanau said she would see that as a failure, and it would mean the council would have to consider cuts in other areas like social housing and water infrastructure.

But she changed tack later in the interview, saying she had misunderstood the line of questioning.

“I think we will continue selling the shares and will continue having a solid Long-Term Plan.”

She said once councillors saw the impact of not selling shares, they would support her position.

When it was pointed out this was the exact opposite of what she earlier said, Whanau apologised: “That could have been quite scandalous.”

The council is voting at a committee level on whether to sell its 34% stake in the airport. The proceeds of the sale would be transferred into a new green perpetual investment fund to diversify the council’s portfolio.

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