23 AUGUST 07

Helene Ritchie To Stand For Mayoralty

Top polling Wellington City Councillor and the city’s first woman deputy mayor, Helene Ritchie, announced today she is standing for the mayoralty.

“It’s time for a change at City Hall,” she said.

Wellington’s longest-serving councillor, Cr Ritchie said: “I am proud of this City which I have helped create. I feel very privileged to have been able to do so but, without the people of Wellington, this could not have happened. I am seeking their endorsement again this October.

“There are really only two people in this mayoral race.”

Although a member of the Labour Party, Cr Ritchie will be standing as an Independent.

“I believe that the Mayor must be inclusive, independent, open and fair. The current Prendergast-Shaw administration has failed to deliver on those ‘must-have’ qualities, favouring self-interest and self-promotion instead.”

Cr Ritchie said the council needed a change in leadership and a change in style and she was the right woman for the job.

“I hope voters feel the same way.”

Cr Ritchie’s focus has been the waterfront and health. She will detail her key priorities at the launch of the campaign in September.

Background on Helene Ritchie:

Helene was first elected to the Wellington City Council in 1977. In 1982, when she instigated the city’s nuclear weapon free zone, Helene was the first woman Labour Leader on the Council, a position she held for six years.

At the same time, she worked as a full-time psychologist in the Department of Education and chaired Wellington's Airport Authority and the national organisation of airport authorities. As a business woman, she was a long time member of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. She holds four postgraduate degrees and two diplomas in psychology, education, and business studies (dispute resolution).

During her time as Labour Leader, she initiated Wellington's Moa Point sewage campaign and co-led, with Sir Guy Powles, a deputation to the Governor General, Sir David Beattie, asking for the 1981 Springbok tour to be stopped. Saving Wellington's historic Town Hall from demolition was also a priority of the Labour Team of the early 1980s.

Helene became Wellington's first woman deputy mayor in 1986. During that time, she chaired the highly successful civic centre project - the heart of the Capital - and held all key portfolios of the council .

Today, Helene is a Wellington City Councillor and Health Board member.

She has two children and two grandchildren.
Recently, she fought a successful battle against breast cancer and
now - resolved grief issues brought on by the death of her husband Peter in 2001. Today she is strong, fit and well.

ENDS

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