Nick Leggett for leadership that listens
Carpetbagger or new energy for the capital? Nikki Macdonald meets the Porirua mayor standing as a Wellington mayoral candidate.
Nick Leggett stops a greyhaired grump carrying three boxes of tissues. He doesn’t even get his spiel out – ‘‘Hi, my name is Nick Leggett and I’m running for mayor of Wellington’’ – before he’s gruffly dismissed. ‘‘I won’t support you because you’re Labour.’’
Leggett laughs. ‘‘Have you been reading the news? Did you see what Andrew Little said about me?’’
The two-term Porirua mayor has always stood as an independent – he reckons party politics and local government don’t mix. But he’s been a Labour Party member since he was 15, only leaving when he stunned the region by announcing he would stand for Wellington’s mayoralty.
He resigned because Labour has anointed Justin Lester, who lives barely 100m down the road from the Johnsonville villa where Leggett has moved his family to contest the capital mayoralty. Labour Party leader Andrew Little responded to Leggett’s candidacy by decrying him as Right-wing and backed by Right-wing money – a tag Leggett rejects.
He admits it’s audacious to run for mayor in one city while still mayor of another. But he seems to be winning the bid for recognition, at least here in Johnsonville, no doubt helped by his mobile billboards.
His face smiles from the back of a bus across the road – that’s one of the new ones, Leggett explains. You can text to say what you want from the city.
Leggett is randomly introducing himself in Johnsonville Rd. He’s as bold in intercepting people as he promises to be as mayor. The bank security guard has no idea who he is but most of these Thursday shoppers recognise the 36-year-old – Wellington’s youngest mayoral hopeful.
A woman in a purple beret and paua necklace plants a kiss on his cheek. Jo-Ani Robinson lives here but knows him from his Porirua work. She’s a dead cert vote – ‘‘He just lifted Porirua up. He is all about communities.’’
John Young is undecided. ‘‘You’re in my top three so far.’’
The others? Lester and Jo Coughlan.
Young doesn’t care that Leggett is a ring-in from Porirua. He’s just worried about Johnsonville Mall’s future, the cycle lane (‘‘not as disastrous as Island Bay but certainly a problem’’) and the council fast-tracking housing projects without consultation.
That’s something Leggett promises to change. No more ramming through projects communities hate, like Island Bay’s cycleway. More devolved funding and responsibility to shape your own community. And less meddling by councillors in operational matters. Decide on a vision and let the experts deal with the detail.
‘‘Council needs to see itself less as the doer and creator of economic activity and more as a supporter of community and business to do things for themselves.’’
The Leggetts’ lounge is still strewn with cards and presents for newborn Tane. The Johnsonville house is rented and they still have their Porirua home. Leggett bristles at the suggestion he’s not fully committed to the capital. Not only has he walked away from being a likely shoo-in for a third term as Porirua mayor, he became a first-time father the day after his campaign launch. (He’s also stepdad to wife Emily’s daughter Madi.) He is also giving up his seat on Wellington’s health board to concentrate on the council.
‘‘I think people probably want politicians that are prepared to be bold and not just take the easy road.’’
Leggett was born in Porirua and attended Paremata School and Tawa College. His mum is a teacher, his father worked in marketing and sales and electricity infrastructure. The family wasn’t wildly political but he did protest against the Springbok tour – in his Dad’s backpack.
At 10 he wrote to then mayor Fran Wilde about moving the ferry terminal closer to town. He joined Labour at 15, studied political science at Victoria University, and was elected to Porirua City Council at 19.
He took a term out from the council to work in commercial property – to understand how businesses work. He’s certainly found favour with Wellington’s business community, earning the backing of prominent former councillor and former Museum Hotel owner Chris Parkin.
As Porirua mayor, Leggett earned headlines for outlawing gang insignia on headstones, introducing car-washing regulations to prevent harbour contamination and reducing the number of councillors. But the achievements he’s proud of are budgeting for infrastructure renewal, achieving the same credit rating as Wellington and making Porirua proud of itself.
So why leave? Despite being a career politician, Leggett says, ‘‘You get in and get out’’. After six years in Porirua he felt he’d improved the areas he could. And Wellington was ‘‘stalled at the lights’’, dragging down the whole region. Productivity was sluggish and the city’s failed to take up government infrastructure opportunities – Leggett was a Basin flyover supporter.
‘‘Wellington doesn’t really have a plan ... I think that’s why there’s some new leadership required.’’ So what’s his plan? Transport is a big question. The city and regional councils and Transport Agency need to prioritise either cars or public transport so they can agree a transport plan between the Terrace Tunnel and the airport. Leggett won’t commit to a solution - it should be whichever moves the most people the most quickly.
He’s also big on resilience – stormwater, water storage, quake preparedness. Because if the government has to shift to Auckland after a major quake, there’s no guarantee they’ll return.
He advocated amalgamation with Porirua, but that won’t be a key election policy and he thinks it should be decided by referendum.
Leggett bags both mayor Celia Wade-Brown and deputy mayor Lester for the Island Bay cycleway debacle and instead promises leadership that listens.
‘‘If the councillors truly believed that Wellington was the smartest and best educated city in New Zealand, they would hand back some of the power to those communities so they can shape where they live for themselves.’’
Tickets are now available for the Wellington mayoral candidate debate, presented by Wellington Chamber of Commerce and Deloitte, in association with The Dominion Post. The debate, moderated by Linda Clark, will be held at Victoria University on September 8. Tickets cost $25 + gst for chamber members and $35 + gst for non-members. For more details, go to wecc.org.nz/ mayoraldebate