Fran Wilde: Vision Wellington Member on the group's formation, Wellington's struggles

Big names are launching a lobby group in the capital with local body elections less than a year away. 

Dames Kerry Prendergast, Patsy Reddy, and Fran Wilde, along with Sir Bob Jones are some of the movers and shakers endorsing what's called Vision for Wellington. 

The group, which claims to be bipartisan, wants the council to rein in its spending and put an end to in-fighting. 

Dame Fran Wilde told Heather du Plessis-Allan that the slow slide into party politics has caused problems for the council. 

She said this group was formed to provide a platform where Wellingtonians can be a part of the conversation about what they want the city to be. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now eighteen prominent Wellingtonians have formed a group to try
to get the capital out of the doldrums. Sir Bob Jones,
Dames Patsy Ready and Kerry Prendergast, even our own fran
O'Sullivan are all members of the group. Vision for Wellington,
that's what they're calling themselves. Is being pitched as a
non partisan group that will consult the public to work
out ways of fixing Wellington's problems. And also part of
the group is Dame fran Wild who's with us now, Hafran.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
How are you, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I'm very well and it's good to talk to you.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Tell me you've been around in Wellington for a while, right,
How does this particular low point, this slump rate in
terms of what you've seen? Is it the worst or
is it comparable to what you saw in the late
eighties early nineties.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's pretty bad. When I took over as mayor in
the early nineties, it was Wellington was in the doldrums.
But we got a council and that were prepared to
work together and it was interesting. We had people of
so versus Rex Nichols on one side and too Kejuley,
who was Green and yes, they all had their views,

(00:58):
but there was a compromise enough to get big things done.
And we don't seem to be getting this with this
count Will your reckon has.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Gone wrong that they can't work together.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
I think it's just been a slow slide into it
party politics, people just getting entrenched views and then personalizing issues.
It's just not working. Local government should be different from that.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
So what does vision for Wellington's plan?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, we, first of all, it was just a few
of us who every now and again saw one another
and said, oh my god, you know it's pretty bad,
and then well, what are we going to do about it?
And so I'm glad you said there, Ateen, I thought,
oh my gosh, I don't even know how many people
there are, but there's a group. And we thought, why
don't we actually say something publicly and say we want

(01:48):
to provide a platform where Wellingtonians, whoever they are, can
come on board and be part of a conversation about
how we would like the city to be.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Will you put up candidates at the next election.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Not as a group, not that I'm aware of. We haven't,
certainly that's not been what our objective is. It's possible
people may stand, but the group will get quite big.
We think we've already had hundreds today contacting us. But
I think one big thing about the next election is
people have to vote. In the last by election, I

(02:26):
think it was down to only about a quarter of
the role voting. So frankly, I've always said, if you
don't vote, you can't complain about the What the buggers
do you know? Afterwards? You're disqualifying yourself from criticizing if
you don't vote.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Talking Talking is one thing, but I mean it would
probably help if you had money behind you.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Do you No, we don't. But actually we're hoping that
again this will be something which will be much more
generic crowdsource. This is not just a few wealthy people
saying we'll throw a whole lot of money at it.
We haven't even talked about that, frankly. But what we
have talked about quite recently, because it's all quite new,

(03:07):
is we try and get some groups together to talk
about different issues and come up with some great ideas
that we think Wellingtonians generally will buy into and present
them to the council.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Okay, I see what you're going to do there. So
how long have you guys been working together then, it.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Hasn't been that long. I've trying to work that out today.
As I've said, it's grown from a few of us
who saw each other every now and again too now
in the last few weeks saying that we have to
actually do something about this, and we probably should do
something publicly. So it's pretty recent.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
There is a suggestion that some members of the group
had lobbied the government to get the government to intervene.
Is that true?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Well, I said, it's really interesting because I know we're
all accused of having met up with particularly simm Brown.
Last time I saw him was December last year, and
it was actually talking about all not Wellington.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
But nothing wrong in Auckland.

Speaker 2 (04:04):
Oh no, no, not perfect. But actually it is possible
people have talked to I mean, some of these people
talk to ministers a lot, they're working with them, so
I'm you know, yes, people will have talked to men.
This is but actually we certainly haven't had a you know,
any kind of formal lobby WITHOK.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
So much informal not formally. Do you think the government's
done the right thing to.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Interven I certainly do. I think that the having a
Crown observer is will be. It's a big shot across
the bows. This is not just about the Mayor of Wellington.
This is about the whole councilor and Counselor of behavior
and so having somebody there watching how things are working,

(04:50):
being able to dig down a bit and see, you know,
what is behind decision making will be really critical.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Friend, thank you so much for talking us rough and
thanks also for stepping in to do something about the
city deserves it. Dame Frand Wild who's a vision for Wellington,
A Vision Wellington member. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio