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2025 Wellington City Council election
Elections in New Zealand From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The 2025 Wellington City Council election is an upcoming local election to be held from 9 September to 11 October in Wellington, New Zealand, as part of that year's nation-wide local elections. Voters will elect the mayor of Wellington, 15 city councillors, and other local representatives for the 2025–2028 term of the Wellington City Council. Postal voting and the single transferable vote voting system will be used.
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The council introduced a Māori ward at the 2022 election; its future will be decided in a referendum on the issue, as part of a nation-wide series of referendums.
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Key dates
- 4 July 2025: Nominations for candidates will open
- 1 August 2025: Nominations for candidates will close at 12 pm
- 9 September 2025: Voting documents will be posted and voting will open
- 11 October 2025: Voting will close at 12 pm and progress/preliminary results will be published
- 16–19 October 2025: Final results will be declared.[1][2]
Background
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Positions up for election
Voters in the city will elect the mayor of Wellington, 15 city councillors in 6 wards, and the members of two community boards (Tawa and Mākara / Ōhāriu).[3] They will also elect 8 members of the Greater Wellington Regional Council.[a][4]
Māori wards referendum
In May 2021, the Wellington City Council voted 13–2 to establish a Māori ward,[5][6] with the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori ward first contested in the 2022 elections.
In July 2024, the National-led coalition government passed the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Act 2024 which reinstated the requirement that councils must hold a referendum before establishing Māori wards or constituencies. In September 2024, the council voted 13–3 to affirm their decision to establish the Māori constituency, thereby triggering a referendum on the constituency to be held alongside the 2025 local elections.[7][8]
Airport shares
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In October 2023, the council's Long-term Plan, Finance, and Performance Committee, which comprises all members of the council and is chaired by Labour councilor Rebecca Matthews, proposed a sale of the council's 34% stake in the Wellington Airport as a part of the council's long term plan. The proceeds of the sale would go on to establish an Investment fund for use in the case of a natural disaster. [9]
On 30 May 2024 the Council voted 8–8, with Mayor Whanau casting the tie-breaking vote, to sell its stake in the airport. Green Mayor and Deputy Mayor, Whanau and Laurie Foon voted in favour of the sale despite the Green Party running on retaining public ownership of the airport shares.[10] The sale was opposed by all of the Labour councillors, independent councillors; Ray Chung and Iona Pannett and Green councillors Geordie Rodgers and Nīkau Wi Neera.[11]
The sale caused a rift in the Green Party with Wi Neera and Rodgers voting against it.[11] Green MP for Wellington Central and former Councillor, Tamatha Paul opposed the sale saying that opposition to privatisation was “fundamental” to Green principles and that any Green councillor who voted in favour of the sale would “undermine the credibility” of the party. The Green Party's 2022 constitution outlined opposition to selling shares and Green MP for Rongotai, Julie Anne Genter stated that she supported public ownership of infrastructure as a “general principle” but that the council was in tricky position.[12] The sale of shares was unpopular with Wellington Unions[11] and the general public. Before the sale occurred, a poll, commisioned by Unions Wellington, found that 74% of respondents opposed the sale, 51.4% of respondents said they would be less likely to vote for a councillor who voted for the sale and that a majority of supporters of all political parties in parliament except ACT opposed the sale.[13]
On 12 August 2024, a majority of councillors signed a notice of revocation, attempting to overturn the vote. The notice was signed by councillors who had previously voted against the sale except for Green councillor Rogers and Labour councillor Matthews. Independent councillors, Diane Calvert, Nicola Young and Tony Randle changed their decision and signed the notice.[14] The notice however was overturned as invalid.[15]
In september council the council's chief executive confirmed another vote would be held on the 10th of October.[16] The vote went 9–7 in favour for holding the shares and was voted for by those who had signed the earlier notice of revocation.[17]
Following the failure of the airport shares sale and the council's decision to pay for water infrastructure through up-front rates rather than debt financing, Minister of Local Government, Simeon Brown appointed a crown observer to the council.[18]
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Campaign
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Mayor
Incumbent mayor Tory Whanau had announced she would run for a second term, but later changed her mind after Andrew Little entered the race.[19] Ray Chung would contest the election as the candidate from the Independent Together group.
Other candidates looking to contest the mayoralty include business owner Karl Tiefenbacher, former Wellington LIVE media owner Graham Bloxham, conservationist Kelvin Hastie, former city councillor Rob Goulden,[20][21] and former chartered accountant Alex Baker.[22][23]
A campaign parodying Independent Together was launched in June 2025, featuring "Pennywize the Rewilding Clown" for mayor, with a campaign website that closely parodied that of the Independent Together website. The parody played on the character from Stephen King's horror franchise It.[24]
ACT Local
On 18 March, ACT announced they would run candidates in local elections for the first time.[25] ACT's candidates would oppose attempts to manage carbon emissions at the local level.[26]
On 26 July ACT announced three candidates for the Wellington City Council; Ray Bowden, for the Wharangi/Onslow-Western Ward,[27] Mark Flynn for the Takapu/Northern ward[28] and Luke Kuggeleijn for the for the Motukairangi/Eastern ward.[29]
Green
On 7 April, the Green Party announced incumbent Mayor Tory Whanau and councillors Laurie Foon and Geordie Rogers would seek re-election and newcomer Johnny Osborne would be running for council in the Motukairangi/Eastern ward. It was not announced whether incumbent councillor for the Māori ward, Nīkau Wi Neera would run again.[30]
On 29 April, after Labour's Andrew Little announced his candidacy for mayor, Whanau announced she would pull out of the mayoral race and would run for council in the Māori ward.[31] Incumbent councillor Wi Neera announced he would not be seeking re-election.[32]
On 6 May incumbent councillor Rebecca Matthews announced she would be seeking re-election as a Green party candidate after leaving the Labour Party.[33]
Independent Together
Independent together was launched to contest the election on 13 April 2025 with incumbent councilor Ray Chung as their mayoral candidate.The group is fiscally conservative (with their key policy being zero rates increases in the upcoming term) and they oppose party politics on council.[34] Alongside Chung's mayoral candidacy he is running to retain his current seat if not elected to the mayoralty. Eight other candidates are running for councillor positions.[35]
Independent Together has strong ties to right wing group Better Wellington.[36] Internet Data revealed that Independent Together and Chung's campaign websites were hosted on the same server as websites for right wing groups Better Wellington and Resistance Kiwi, and the organizers of an anti-transgender rally,[37] Inflection Point NZ.[36] The websites were set up and managed by right-wing political operative and pro-whaling lobbyist Glenn Inwood.[36] Inwood previously formulated and spread false rumours of the existence of a sexually compromising video of Tory Whanau, incumbent mayor of Wellington.[38][39][40] Independent Together's ads are authorized by Better Wellington's Paul Heffernan[41] and Chung's campaign manager is Better Wellington spokesperson Alistair Boyce.[42] Independent Together's policy pillars were formulated by Chung, Inwood, Boyce and Heffernan in consultation with Better Wellington members.[36]
Better Wellington dossier on Labour-alligned candidates
The Independent Together-linked campaign group Better Wellington was revealed to have compiled a dossier on Labour candidates in July.[43]
Chung email scandal
An email sent by Chung to three other councillors in which he spread a rumour about a sexual encounter between mayor Whanau and a third party was released in July. The email was broadly condemned by Chung's opponents, as well as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Leader of the Opposition Chris Hipkins.
The three councillors that received the email were Tony Randle, Nicola Young and John Apanowicz. Young told the New Zealand Herald that she told Chung the email was "unwise and tawdry" at the time. Randle said, with regards to the rumour in the email, that "people should be held accountable and in the end you stand as a person whose intentions and character are judged every three years", and that he did not believe the email ruled out Chung as a candidate. Apanowicz said he did not recall receiving the email, but that the rumours about mayor Whanau "upset" him.[44]
A campaign event following the scandal erupted into chaos, as opponents of Chung made up a considerable minority of those in attendance at the event hosted in The Grand on Courtenay Place in the city centre.[45]
Labour
On 16 March, the Labour Party announced that incumbent councillors Ben McNulty and Nureddin Abdurahman would seek re-election and that Afnan Al-Rubayee would run again in the Pukehīnau/Lambton ward.[46] After a party vote on 6 April, the party announced three more candidates; Matthew Reweti would again run for the Māori ward, Joy Gribben for the Wharangi/Onslow-Westernward and Sam O'Brien for the Motukairangi/Eastern ward.[47] Incumbent councillor Rebecca Matthews was not confirmed for nomination [48] and would leave the Labour party and instead run for reelection under the Green party.[33]
Labour was initially unable to find a mayoral candidate and extended the period of nominations for the role.[49] The party's president and former city councillor Jill Day and former mayor Justin Lester were approached for the candidacy but declined, although Lester did not completely rule it out.[50] Former leader of the Labour Party Andrew Little announced in April that he was considering running.[51] On the 16th he announced he was seeking the Labour nomination[52] and he was confirmed on the 28th.[53]
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Candidates
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Incumbents not seeking re-election
- Tim Brown, councillor for the Motukairangi/Eastern ward since 2022[54][55]
- Sarah Free, councillor for the Motukairangi/Eastern ward since 2013, is instead standing for the Greater Wellington Regional Council[56]
- Teri O'Neill, councillor for the Motukairangi/Eastern ward since 2019[57]
- Iona Pannett, councillor for the Pukehīnau/Lambton since 2007[58][59]
- Tory Whanau, not seeking re-election as Mayor, but seeking election in the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori Ward.[60][61][62]
- Nīkau Wi Neera, councillor for the Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori ward since 2022[62]
Mayor
Tory Whanau was initially the Green candidate but later changed to run for the city's Māori ward instead. Andrew Little would run as the Labour candidate as the main centre-left candidate, against a field of mainly right-of-centre challengers.[19] Ray Chung would run as the mayoral candidate for the Independent Together ticket. From the withdrawal of Whanau until councillor Diane Calvert announced, there were no female candidates announced.
Councillors
Te Whanganui-a-Tara Māori ward
Te Whanganui a Tara Māori ward will return one councillor to the city council.[63]
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Takapū/Northern General ward
The Takapū/Northern General ward will return three councillors to the city council.[63]
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Wharangi/Onslow-Western General ward
The Wharangi/Onslow-Western General ward will return three councillors to the city council.[63]
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Pukehīnau/Lambton General ward
The Pukehīnau/Lambton General ward will return three councillors to the city council.[63]
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Motukairangi/Eastern General ward
The Motukairangi/Eastern General ward will return three councillors to the city council.[63]
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Paekawakawa/Southern General ward
The Paekawakawa/Southern General ward will return two councillors to the city council.[63]
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Results
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Final results are expected by 19 October.
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See also
Notes
- A candidate may leave their affiliation blank, run as an independent, or run with an affiliation to an organisation, local body ticket, political party, whānau, hapū, or iwi.[65]
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References
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