Andrew Little enters the Wellington Mayoral race

Former Labour Party leader and senior Cabinet minister Andrew Little has announced his candidacy for Wellington mayor, setting the stage for a high-profile contest in the capital. He filed his nomination and is seeking the Wellington Labour Party’s support for his mayoral campaign.

He stepped away from politics in 2023 following his party’s defeat in the national elections the same year. But he is making a return because he believes that Wellington needs “serious leadership” to tackle the city’s crisis of confidence, inflation and council dysfunction.

In a video announcement, he expressed his frustration with the current state of the city, particularly the council’s handling of financial issues, infrastructure upgrades, and community facilities and promised to fix the pipes, make public transport cheaper, invest in parks, swimming pools and libraries, and develop more housing.


He went on to criticise current mayor Tory Whanau’s leadership for her decisions like the sale of council assets, the buyout of land under the mothballed Reading Cinema, and the closing of community facilities and accused the council of being out of touch with residents.

He said he would “re-phase” the Golden Mile project to reduce disruption to struggling businesses. He also supports a regional deal with the central government to fund key infrastructure, while ensuring Wellington gets its fair share in the proposed regional water entity.

Andrew Little's mayoral bid has received strong support from Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who praised his leadership abilities, and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who called him a better option than incumbent Tory Whanau. With growing political support, Little is positioning himself as a key contender for Wellington's top job.

Six other contenders in the race for the city’s top job include Whanau, Ray Chung, former councillor Rob Goulden, conservationist Kelvin Hastie, businessman Karl Tiefenbacher, and Wellington Live's Graham Bloxham.