Who was there? What did they say? Watch the recording of our By-Election Meet the Candidates event

Written By Inner-City Wellington

On Thursday 25 January ICW & EKTA NZ hosted a
“Meet the Candidates for the Pukehīnau/Lambton Ward By-Election 2024.

All seven candidates who are standing for this Ward attended.

  • What did they say?

  • What didn’t they say?

Thanks to the generous assistance of the great video team from It’s in the Ballot you can find out by watching this recording of the live stream (fast forward to 11:45 minutes in for the start).

There is also an excellent writeup of the event by Scoop.

A sincere thank you to all the candidates for attending, and for the over 150 people who came along to join us on the night.

So all you need to do now is watch the recording, read about the candidates and their policies (see links below), watch out for the voting papers to arrive (see below for info and what to do if they don’t), make your decision - and vote!

Please don’t let this important opportunity for you to shape our city’s Council pass you by.

Our event: the Live Stream recording (starts 11:45 minutes in)

The questions we asked

  • Q1: Reviving the city

  • Q2: Promoting a cosmopolitan community

  • Q3: Funding priorities  

  • Q4: Earthquake-prone buildings - the impact on apartment living and the city

  • Q5: The cost of insurance

  • Q6: The Golden Mile

  • Q7: Transparency and communication 

Want to see more?

Here’s a recording from the ‘Meet the Candidates’ event produced and directed by the It’s in the Ballot team (the event starts at 18:20 minutes in)
This was held on 24 January and four of the candidates attended (Ellen Blake, Edward Griffiths, Joan Shi and Peter Wakeman).
Different questions were asked and answered - in the fun and relaxed style of “It’s in the Bag” - worth a watch !

Background to this By-Election

Wellington has some knotty challenges in 2024 - revisiting the Golden Mile, fixing our leaky pipes, managing the Town Hall and Central Library developments, and building relationships with the new central government. With Tamatha Paul now an MP, someone is needed to fill the gap on the Wellington City Council. Who will it be? So that's why there's a Pukehīnau/Lambton Ward by-election in February and there are seven candidates seeking your vote.

Read the what, when and who for this By-Election

Key Information: this WCC page has all the details. For example:

  • Voting papers should arrive by Thursday 1 February 2024, voting opens on Friday 26 January 2024, voting closes at 12noon Saturday 17 February 2024.

  • The suburbs in this Ward are: Thorndon, Pipitea, Wellington Central, Te Aro, Oriental Bay, Kelburn, Highbury, Aro Valley, Mount Cook, Mount Victoria.

Who are the candidates? There are 7 candidates (in alphabetical order).

Inner-City Wellington https://www.innercitywellington.nz/
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