I congratulate Tory on being elected as the new mayor of Wellington. I also congratulate the newly elected and re-elected councillors. I wish them all the very best for the next three years. There is a huge amount of work to be done for our amazing city, building on what we have already delivered and decided. Go well all of you.

The election result means that after three decades I am bowing out of Council.

I have loved my time on Council, as a long term councillor and over the last three years having the honour of being the Mayor of this great city. Every day has been about learning, about service and about making a positive difference. I have met so many wonderful people, made so many friendships, and these I will always treasure. Over that time I have worked with five other Mayors, five CEOs, 65 other councillors, and a huge number of awesome members of staff.

I thank all those who have provided friendship, support, guidance and knowledge over the years. I couldn’t have done it without you.

The past three years at Council were as challenging as anyone would ever face. Almost immediately after being elected pipes started to break. Then the Covid pandemic arrived and turned our entire world upside down. Its effects will be felt for years to come.

We have had to deal with the ongoing aftermath of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake on buildings above the ground and the ageing pipes below it. It has led to a costly repair bill that stretches out in front of us.

The Parliamentary protests brought more disruption as parts of the city were essentially shut down, causing economic and social harm to Wellingtonians simply trying to get on with their lives.

These events were outside the Council’s control, but as a Council we were required to deal with them. I am particularly proud of the way I led the response that saw us come out the other side in good shape to make Wellington an even better place to call home.

I also had to deal with a divided council, including some who struggled to accept the Mayoral election result in 2019. Notwithstanding this we still made decisions for our city.

I am also very proud that we got through those issues and in the second half of the triennium, the council started to fire on all cylinders to achieve great outcomes for the city.

1. Effectively supporting our city, businesses, CCOs, arts, culture and events through Covid. Our city is coming back to life as this very weekend attests with WOW, Macbeth, Ballet, Phoenix, Lions – all supported by Council.
2. Responding to the infrastructure challenge at pace – fixing pipes, building new pipes and building Omaroro, our biggest ever reservoir.
3. Making decisions on critical waste infrastructure - landfill extension and our sludge treatment plant.
4. Getting LGWM actually moving – decisions on Mt Victoria tunnel, Basin solution, and MRT route, and City Streets, Golden Mile and Hutt Rd – Thorndon Quay, delivering safer CBD speeds and cycling projects like Cobham Drive, Island Bay, Evans Bay, Brooklyn. There will be so much construction over coming years!
5. Notifying the first District Plan in 22 years providing capacity for much more housing, as well as achieving wide buy in to active urban renewal and housing delivery – we are working with Kainga Ora on an urban development agency.
6. Getting agreement to establish a Community Housing Provider to manage Council’s social housing, allowing more social housing to be built and new tenants be better looked after.
7. Responding to City Safety concerns through the nation leading Poneke Promise partnership.
8. Delivering comprehensive new Economic Wellbeing and Aho Tini Arts, Culture and Creativity Strategies, and a long awaited mid-sized rehearsal and performance venue at Te Whaea. Supporting the redevelopment of Circa
9. Restoring and building several Council Buildings – reopening our St James, progressing the Town Hall and specifically for this Council, the deal done with Te Papa to operate Tākina, the deal with Willis Bond to build a home for the National School of Music, and our decisions to deliver a resilient, modern, exciting Central Library Te Matapihi. There’s also a significant array of community facilities and places that we’ve opened or are close to completion.
10. Being an Inclusive Council – the Tākai Here partnership with iwi, and much enhanced relationships with our ethnic, faith and rainbow communities.

Looking back at my time as a councillor, our city has been transformed from a grey public service city to a city regularly recognised as one of the best in the world to live in. That’s included construction of the Stadium, Te Papa, development of a tourism industry, growing our arts and culture sector, being a member of the Waterfront Leadership Group who’s Framework has guided the development of our waterfront, and a host of sporting, community, recreational facilities.

I am particularly proud of the transformation of our natural environment. We’ve gone from an environmental desert to the world leader in environmental restoration and biodiversity. That’s included establishing Zealandia, acquiring almost all of our Outer Green Belt, a task which I had hoped to complete over the next term, and having our community so engaged in restoration work.

We now have easily the highest levels of walking, cycling, and public transport use in New Zealand. I’m proud to have led on the early development of cycleways, on the bikes in schools programme and all our bus priority works to date. I led on road safety work, establishment of car share schemes, and was part of moving our State Highway from Ghuznee St to the then new Karo Drive, giving Ghuznee Street back to city uses.

The dynamism of our Central City was hugely helped by our rules allowing flexible mixed use, not requiring carparking, ongoing support for arts, culture, events, venues, the development of culinary and tourism scenes. Our suburbs have benefitted too, including the planning rules facilitating Churton Park town centre, and Newlands’ Town Centre, and I look forward to plans for Johnsonville’s town centre being made public soon.

I’ve always supported heritage, and planning rules to improve quality of design and protection of character. A small passion project was our World War One street signs. With the upcoming Heritage and Identity Strategies I hope to see storytelling much expanded. It’s part of us being more aware of and proud of the shoulders we stand on.

I’ve been particularly involved in my home suburb of Karori having a leading role in the Recreation Centre, Swimming Pool, Library, Community Centre, Karori Park redevelopment, protecting iconic Futuna Chapel and much more. I’ve also been involved from the foundation in Makara Peak’s development.

I really want to thank the people of the Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward for their friendship and ongoing support during my time on Council.

Most important of all I want to thank my wife Ann and our children Brendon and Ella. They have given up so much over so many years. Only political families know the toll that politics takes. I look forward to spending more time together.

We had already decided this would be my last Council election campaign, but obviously I wanted very much to lead the city through a time of rejuvenation and transformation, and to finish many projects and initiatives underway or in conception. I wish Tory and the new Council well in this.

As I now move to being a private citizen, I request that the media respect my and my family’s privacy at this time.

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