I should admit that I am a fan of Tory Whanau.
For the last Wellington Mayoralty I preferred her policy mix to that of the labour candidate Paul Eagle. He had a “middle” of the road anti cycleway and lets form a coalition with the right style campaign which would mean business as usual at a time when council business needs to be really radical.
And besides he supported conservative candidate Diane Calvert and allegedly gave advice to conservative candidates running against Labour candidates. I am sure the reality was more mixed but doing anything to provide succour to right wing candidates should be frowned upon.
He said that Wellington has an unhealthy obsession with cycleways. He lost me at that statement.
By way of contrast Tory Whanau offered a truly progressive view of the world and what Wellington could be. From her campaign website:
I’m tired of stuff not working. I want to fix our water infrastructure, our public transport system and our over the top rents. We’re steadily losing our sense of community, of feeling safe in our city. I think back to growing up in Patea, that strong sense of community we shared, well Wellington ‘had’ that similar feeling once, it was a city with a kind heart but that’s faded.”
“I want women to feel safe. Students to be able to afford their rent. I’m a city girl who grew up in the country and I choose to live here, I’m lucky I can. I love our cafes and bars and that buzz Wellington always had on the streets. It doesn’t feel that way now. Let’s fix Wellington and bring back that ‘loving feeling’ to Te Whanganui-a-Tara.”
I am not surprised she won. STV allows progressives to really express themselves.
Since then she has been the subject of unrelentingly negative publicity.
It seems every week there is a new scandal involving her. There was the doggy scandal when it was discovered that Tory’s dogs presence in the Mayoral office breached the terms of the lease.
And there have been a couple of incidents involving alcohol.
It is surprising they should even be mentioned. Alcohol has been a necessary lubricant in the practice of politics since the formation of the country. We once had a Prime Minister drunkenly call a general election live on TV.
The first incident involved her not paying a bill. This is easily done and the bill was paid the next morning. The manager of the restaurant she was at said that the staff didn’t find her rude or disrespectful at all and that she was slightly drunk.
The second incident has all the hallmarks of a massive beat up based on rumours and attacks citing a video that no one appears to have actually seen.
And some medis types and councillors should do a crash course on the laws of defamation. As highlighted in this article by Joel McManus in the Spinoff. He concludes:
Tory Whanau has gone on the record about her drinking problem. Addiction is a difficult and deeply personal issue, but as mayor it is still an important story for the city and warrants scrutiny. There will likely be much more reporting on this story.
But going on Sean Plunket’s media platform and circulating unfounded, potentially defamatory and clearly harmful rumours about the mayor is an important story in its own right. For that, councillor Young warrants scrutiny, too.
And as McManus points out main stream media should be very careful in they way they are reporting on an unsourced and unverified rumour.
Maybe she had a few too many wines. Most of the adult population of Aotearoa New Zealand have been in that situation.
But this pile on is typical of right wing media’s approach to any progressive woman who puts her head above the parapet. Politics should be better than this.
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