Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Outgoing Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has U-turned on plans for a future mayoral bid, and is instead looking to Parliament for a potential 2029 run with the Green Party.
In an interview with the Herald, Whanau shared her future plans as she finishes up her term leading the capital.
First elected as mayor in 2022 with a landslide victory on a platform of city transformation and unifying the council, Whanau initially said she wanted three terms in the mayoralty.
That changed when she announced in April she was quitting the race to make way for Andrew Little, and would instead run for the Greens in the city’s Māori ward.
Her opponent, Labour’s Matthew Rewiti, recently secured the endorsement of local iwi Te Āti Awa, but Whanau remains confident.
“I think I’ll win it,” she said.
“He is uri [a descendant], whereas I’m from Taranaki, so that would make sense, but I have a very close relationship with iwi leaders.
“If I’m not elected to the Māori ward, I will respect democracy, but I’ll still keep contributing to the areas that I care about the most,” Whanau said.
After announcing she was quitting the mayoral race, she said on social media she would “probably run again for mayor in 2028″.
“It’s about the long game and allowing some recharge in between to sustain our delivery,” Whanau said in a post on Bluesky at the time.
She has now changed her mind, saying she would “probably not” seek the mayoralty in the future.
“I’ve reflected a lot and when I look at what has been achieved at council under my mayoralty, which is pretty much everything I promised except for light rail, I’m actually quite happy with what I’ve left here, I don’t think I need to run for the mayoralty again.”
During her 2022 campaign, Whanau was asked about “Wellington whispers” that claimed she was only running for mayor to boost her profile for a shot on the Green Party list, but brushed it off saying she was committed to running for the mayoralty.
Whanau is a former Green Party chief of staff.
Since then she has been open about her political ambitions, telling Newstalk ZB in a 2023 interview she would “love to have a crack at being a minister” in the future and had her eye on the portfolio areas of Civil Defence, Māori Development, and Foreign Affairs.
Asked whether she could commit to serving a full term if elected to the Māori ward, Whanau said she could and ruled out a run for Parliament in 2026.
“2029 is probably more of a goal for me, I’m committing to the Māori ward, and I really hope I’m elected and I’ll do that to the very end.
“If I’m not, I’ll be focusing on other work, where I can contribute to safety for women in politics, leadership, other ways that I can help Wellington City.”
She said she did not want to run for next year’s general election as she’s “just not ready yet” and would rather focus on working in leadership before entering Parliament.
She confirmed any future Parliament run would be for the Green Party.
Although she would not commit to a 2029 run, Whanau did say she was “100% confident” she would run for Parliament one day.
“I’ve been in politics for 10 years now as chief of staff, now the mayor. I know exactly what being an MP entails, it makes sense that I would head that way, with the political experience that I have.”
Whanau also revealed she has joined the speaking circuit, signing up to an organisation to be a public speaker at events and conferences to talk about resilient leadership, which she plans to do alongside council work if elected.
If unsuccessful in next month’s election, Whanau said she could likely go back to consulting and work in communications helping organisations and causes she cares about.
When she ran for the mayoralty in 2022, Whanau put her party membership on hold in an attempt to build trust with independent councillors.
In April last year Whanau rejoined the Green Party and later that year acknowledged she had upset her base and “wasn’t being Green”.
Voting has opened for the local body elections and closes at noon on Saturday, October 11. Provisional results will be released the same day with the final results declared on October 16.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.