Andrew Little Mayoral Madness
Salient recently interviewed Andrew Little, and I have included quotations from that interview in this article. Little is repeating the same actions and expecting different outcomes.
Little’s entry into the mayoral race reeks of the same political opportunism that has plagued the capital for years. When asked why he is running, he offered the predictable waffle: “I do have a set of skills that could be useful for the council and for Wellington City.” Skills? What skills, exactly - leading a party to electoral oblivion? Making unions even more irrelevant than they already are?
His assessment that the council has "become pretty out of touch with the city it's meant to be serving" would be amusing if it weren't so lacking in self-awareness. This comes from a man who spent years inside the political bubble, utterly divorced from the local realities that make cities function.
On policy details, Little is alarmingly unprepared. Four months to the election, and he is still “figuring out” his stance on public transport costs. Working on it? We are four months out. Little announces his candidacy without even basic policy positions sorted. It’s like a surgeon announcing he'll figure out where to make the incision once he's opened you up.
When pressed on specifics, Little blames others. Asked about public sector job cuts affecting graduates, he shrugged: "the government of the day is the government of the day. They make those decisions," Does he not realise that a council is, itself, a form of government? Hardly inspiring leadership from someone seeking to run the capital. The number of jobs in the public sector has been much lower in previous years, despite a decrease in Wellington’s population for the last two censuses.
His approach to the Golden Mile is equally revealing. “I support the Golden Mile in principle,” he said, but he wants to ensure “the planning of it, the phasing of it, the implementation of it is not going to put undue pressure on businesses.” Translation: I’ll back it until it becomes unpopular, then I’ll blame the roll-out.
Little touts his union background as an asset, yet that very background makes him ill-suited to the commercial realities of running a city in 2025.
Little's claims to be "progressive" while simultaneously declaring "I've never renounced my left-wing credentials". However, his campaign’s ties to E tū, New Zealand’s largest union, are evident: a WHOIS lookup of his campaign site, ‘andrewlittle.nz’, lists Sam Gribben, an E tū communications officer, as the contact, with the union’s address.
The interviewer, Fegus Goodall Smith, even observed that Little seems to be "distancing himself from Tory Whanau". Having ruled out Whanau as deputy before either of them has been elected, Little demonstrates the very arrogance that voters find so off-putting in professional politicians.
Wellington doesn't need another professional politician who thinks the solution to every problem is more consultation, more “community impact statements”, and more process. The city needs someone who understands that councils exist to provide basic services efficiently, not to pursue ideological agendas or create employment for consultants.
Little's candidacy represents everything that's wrong with contemporary local politics - the assumption that political experience qualifies one for executive roles, the belief that good intentions matter more than results, and the arrogance to think that past failures can be rebranded as qualifications.
Little hope indeed.