Some “Thanks” to lots of people really

As I am now standing for the Regional Council, it’s timely to reflect on my time at the City Council. Leaving after 12 years is not without a sense of sadness, but it’s also an opportunity to reflect on what’s been achieved. I’ll cover some achievements I’m most proud of in a subsequent post. But before that, I’d like to say some BIG thanks……

• Firstly: Thanks to the Wellington Greens, for believing in me enough to select me as their candidate for the Motukairangi/Eastern Ward back in 2013, even though I didn’t live there! I promised at an early candidate’s meeting that if elected I would move, and so we did- in the February after the election- first to Kilbirnie and then to Strathmore. Thank you to the Rongotai Branch for all the support, great discussions, challenges and practical help. Thanks especially to ex-MPs James Shaw and Sue Kedgley, current MP Julie-Anne Genter, branch leaders Peter Skrzynski and Jane Little and colleagues Iona Pannett and David Lee. Although I subsequently felt I needed to run as an independent, you guys helped shape my thinking in those early days.
• Secondly: Thank you to the voters of the Eastern Ward– for entrusting me with your vote, raising needed issues, giving considered feedback, and just being hugely positive, friendly and generous people. This part of Wellington really is warm and welcoming; diverse, zany and energetic; and its now very much my home.
• Thirdly: Thanks to past governments for investment in Wellington’s cycling and walking infrastructure. Believe it or not, investment in urban cycleways started under John Key’s government and then got a big boost under the following Labour-led governments. Councils don’t have the balance sheets to make impactful change on their own, so government support matters. It’ll be interesting to see how this government ultimately decides to invest for the future- and I will put in a plug- if there is to be a new Mt Victoria tunnel, it must have come with much improved walking and cycling facilities! Investment in water infrastructure and help with earthquake strengthening for the city wouldn’t go amiss either.
• Fourthly: Thanks to the amazing staff within Council. Our staff have high integrity and professionalism and work really hard to answer our questions and deliver on the direction elected members have set through the democratic process. It has pained me the way some staff have been referred to in the media.
• Finally, Thanks to my colleagues, because the sooner you realise you don’t get anything done by yourself in politics the more you will achieve. I have been privileged to have worked with some great colleagues, some more closely than others, but I can honestly say I have appreciated them all for different reasons at various times. My ward colleagues have been stand-outs, all of them. Thank you in particular to Chris Calvi-Freeman for his support in delivering the cycleway projects- Chris was the one who fought to get extra budget so we could extend the sea wall around Pt Jerningham and deliver a world-class result on the Evans Bay cycleway- and of course I’ll always have a special regard for ex-colleague Andy Foster for whom I was Deputy Mayor.