Wellington has largely managed to keep National away from its shoreline (Photo INL)
Venu Menon
Wellington, October 16,2023
While 20% of the ballots are still to be tallied and the official result will not be declared before November 3, it is fair to say that New Zealand has witnessed a tectonic shift to the centre-right parties in General Election 2023.
But the Wellington region has defied this trend and remained steadfast to the centre-left parties of the political spectrum.
Of the six Wellington region electorates, five voted for Labour or Greens. The party votes went the same way.
Wellington Central, Rongotai, Ohariu, Mana and Remutaka all went to Labour or Green candidates. Hutt South, the sole exception, was won by National.
In Wellington Central, Tamatha Paul of the Green Party won by a margin of 3,324 votes over her nearest rival Omer Ibrahim of the Labour Party. Fellow Green MP Julie Anne Genter is the new face in Parliament from Rongotai. Labour’s Greg O’Connor retained Ohariu after a close contest with National’s Nicola Willis, while Barbara Edmonds and Chris Hipkins retained their Mana and Remutaka electorates, respectively, by comfortable margins.
But National’s Chris Bishop bucked this trend by wresting Hutt South from Labour’s Ginny Andersen by 1,094 votes.
The question now is whether this layout will change after the special votes are counted.
Wellington has acquired a green tint in recent times. It has a Green-affiliated mayor and a Green head of the regional council transport committee.
This breathes new life for Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM), a $7.4 billion project that includes light rail, a second Mt Victoria tunnel, cycleways and an upgrade of the central city that will reserve the 2.4 Km stretch from Parliament to Courtenay Place, known as the Golden Mile, exclusively for buses and cycles.
National has pledged to axe LGWM, though it is partial to constructing the second tunnel through Mt Victoria. It also wants to build a road linking the suburbs of Petone and Grenada.
Both National and ACT are committed to public service job cuts and downsizing the bureaucracy, which the Greens are opposed to.
Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon plans to repeal the Three Waters Act brought in by the Labour government and return control and ownership of water assets to councils. That may not sit well with ratepayers in Wellington, who blame failed pipes squarely on the councils.
Labour’s Three Waters reforms had taken control of water infrastructure away from 67 councils.
Newly elected Green MPs Paul and Genter, as well as Labour’s Greg O’Connor, are joining hands to save LGWM from National’s plan to axe it.
“National has nothing to lose by backing down on its plan to ditch LGWM as the capital had overwhelmingly voted for it,” Genter has noted.
Tamatha Paul has emerged as the rising political star of Wellington. She wrested the time-tested Labour bastion of Wellington Central by unleashing a grass-roots campaign that clearly won over a majority of voters in an electorate described in the 2018 census as “one of the most highly educated electorates in the country.”
According to the census, Wellington Central had the highest proportion of those aged over 15 who had either a post-graduate and honours degree (12.9%), or a masters (10.9%). It ranked second (behind Dunedin) for the share of those with a doctorate (2.6%).
It is also the electorate with the highest proportion of those aged 20 to 24 (16.5%).
Paul has vowed to push hard to promote the Green Party’s agenda.
“I think it’s more important than ever to have strong members in Parliament who stand up for the planet, who stand up for people, pushing for progressive change.
“They [National] are not going to have it easy. We are going to keep our foot on their necks every single day.”
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
