Editorial: Genuine mayoral race good for city

OPINION: News that Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast might reconsider her decision to serve only three terms is a timely reminder that it is but a year until local body election time.

She has finally made public a conversation she has hitherto had only in private, that, depending on the strength of the mayoral field for 2010, she may in fact run a fourth time. She will not, she says, decide until after Christmas.

That she mightn't give politics away could dissuade others from contesting the race. They include at least one businessman, and one or two current city councillors, aside from the squabblers who habitually seek the top job. Some of them are motivated by egotism; others hope the attendant publicity will help them hang on to their well-paid council seats.

Businessman and long-time Lower Hutt resident Sir Robert Jones has also indicated he is assembling a team to challenge for the mayoralty as well as council seats. He has sizeable property holdings in the capital, making him one of Wellington's biggest ratepayers. As a result, he obviously believes he has as much right as anyone else to dabble in Wellington's grassroots politics.

His policy platform will be based on banning vehicles from the Golden Mile to create a pedestrian mall, complete with free trams and cycle lanes. The image he paints has been influenced by his many trips to North America, Europe and Britain, where city councils have "pedestrianised" their central precincts to make their communities more people-friendly.

It is a policy confection that will appeal to more than just environmentalists, but many retailers will be far from happy. Many customers of Kirkcaldie & Stains, for example, prefer to park – if they can – outside the store.

If Sir Robert bankrolls a credible candidate – and it isn't his friend, Ms Prendergast – Wellington can relish the prospect of the most serious mayoral race since former Labour MP Fran Wilde quit after a single term in 1995.

Labour's Rongotai MP and deputy leader Annette King is another who would add spice to a mayoral contest. She consistently laughs off suggestions she might stand, but would surely consider the idea if it became clear Labour could not win the 2011 general election.

A genuine mayoral race would be good for the city. It would test allegiances, force challengers to offer policy over rhetoric, and might even engage an electorate rarely captivated by local body elections. Voters need to participate because Wellington city is again at something of a crossroads.

It faces myriad issues, not least of which involve the transport infrastructure serving both the airport and CentrePort. Worrying, too, is the competition for resources, particularly for educational and research institutions, that seems to be favouring the metropolis to the north. Auckland itself is also important to Wellington's future. The political clout it will be able to wield once its new super-city structure is in place and running smoothly will be immense.

That that will take time to bed in should work to this region's advantage, especially if the multiple local councils here can work together and strategically. That can only happen, of course, if Wellington city has good leadership.

- © Fairfax NZ News