More incidents with Genter alleged
A Wellington councillor has described two “completely inappropriate” encounters with Julie Anne Genter in her former capacity as associate transport minister, including one where he says she tried to exert political pressure on him.
Simon Woolf, formerly a Wellington city councillor, now with the Greater Wellington Regional Council, said he’s speaking publicly about the incidents, which occurred in a short time frame in 2019, after extraordinary scenes emerged this week of the Green MP striding across the House during a transport debate to shout at National’s Matt Doocey.
Several complaints were made to Speaker Gerry Brownlee about Genter’s behaviour, and across the political divide her actions were deemed inappropriate and intimidatory. Within the Green Party, a disciplinary process is under way.
On Thursday, a Wellington florist told The Post Genter had “bullied” her when the pair had a disagreement in her Newtown shop about cycleways being built in the area. Laura Newcombe of Four Seasons Florist said that during the heated discussion, Genter pulled out her phone and focused it on her face, which Newcombe said she found intimidating.
The Green Party yesterday said it accepted Newcombe’s version of events. Genter was not in Parliament on Thursday, and was said to be working from home. She did not respond to requests for comment.
“I think she’s gone too far,” Woolf said. “If you don’t put a stop to it, it [won’t] be the last ... Respect, and the way that Parliament and parliamentarians treat each other, is really important. If an MP handles themselves the way she did the other night, it isn’t OK.”
Woolf alleged an incident in 2019 where he was photographing an event, in a personal business capacity, outside Parliament. Genter was attending as associate transport minister. Just a few months earlier, Let’s Get Wellington Moving had been launched, sparking heated debate about cycleways and mass rapid transit.
Woolf said Genter “came right up to my face and complained bitterly about the slow progress with the city council and the cycleway implementation.
“I had to tell her three times that I wasn’t there as a councillor, I had two cameras around my neck, and that I was there as a photographer”.
Woolf said he instructed Genter to take up her concerns through proper channels, including with his colleague, fellow councillor Sarah Free, who was handling cycleway implementation. He said he gave Free a heads-up that she could expect a call. Free said she didn’t remember the discussion.
Not long afterwards, at the Women of Influence Awards in October 2019, which Woolf was attending to support his mother, the late Inge Woolf, he said Genter again got “right in my face”, this time with a number of high-profile officials and individuals watching, “and started shaking her finger at me in a very animated way”.
He said he took Genter to one side, where she “berated me for five minutes” about comments he had made to media.
“Again, I said to her, this is not the right place or the right time – this is an awards ceremony.
“I said our ideology will probably always be a little bit different, but in respect of today, we need to agree to disagree, and I left the conversation,” said Woolf, who said he walked away.
“It was completely inappropriate, unexpected and unprofessional.”