• Andrew Little has launched his campaign for Wellington mayor, aiming to “knit the whole council together”.
• Little, a former Labour leader, was persuaded to run after being approached by people across the political spectrum.
• He emphasises collaboration and respecting diverse views to achieve solutions that benefit everyone.

Andrew Little has vowed to “reach across the aisle” in a bid to “knit the whole council together” as he formally launches his campaign to be elected Wellington mayor.

The former Labour Party leader announced he was running for mayor in a press conference on Sunday, as he bids to replace the outgoing Tory Whanau.

But in an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Real Life with John Cowan on Sunday night, Little said as recently as last year, he had no interest in the mayoralty and was enjoying practising law.

It was only a “crescendo” of people approaching him early this year that made him reconsider, he said.

“Having been asked, I paid close attention to what was going on, I started developing my own concerns. Then early this year, [I] just had a crescendo of people approaching me from right across the political spectrum to say ‘we need somebody, would you consider doing it?’” he told Cowan.

“And then when I thought about it, as much as I enjoy the law and what that does in helping people, it is fixing problems one by one, person by person; whereas I think a lot of my background has been involved in trying to fix problems [on] a more systemic basis.

“Seeing the challenge in the Wellington City Council as I think there is, I thought ‘I do have skills, I do have something to offer’. And in the end, I persuaded myself with the help of a few others to put my hat in the ring.”

Little is an experienced minister, having served in Parliament from 2011 to 2023 – three years of which he led the Labour Party, until famously stepping aside to allow Jacinda Ardern to lead the party into Government in 2017.

Asked whether the council table would be as interesting as his tenure at the Beehive, Little told Real Life it would be different, but still “a real challenge” to “knit the whole council together”.

“The way I approached my role, particularly as a minister, was to reach across the aisle when I needed to and work with people,” he said.

“I got that from my time as a union leader – you’ve got to deal with a variety of different people, but in the end, what you’re doing is you’re negotiating solutions with employers, and you’ve got to deal with people regardless of differences of view.

“It’s okay that there are different views being expressed around the council table and we should expect that. Different people get elected, you want people with different perspectives.

“The main thing is making sure that those differences in views, in the end, lead to a good solution that everybody can get behind – and that people stick with the decisions that get made.”

Little told Cowan he has spoken with councillors with opposing “political leanings” in the past few weeks, and is “yet to meet anybody who I don’t think I can work with effectively” if he’s elected mayor.

Little says his political philosophy is about “the dignity of people”.

“There’s not just one person in the world, there’s 8 billion, and we have to organise ourselves in a way we aren’t alone, and we do have responsibilities to each other.

“So as well as doing what we can to make the best of our life for ourselves, we’ve also got to respect the right of others to do that and not diminish, demean, put down, marginalise or alienate,” he said.

“We all have different contributions to make. We want the owners of the factors of production, we want the investors, we want the people who are risk-takers – that’s great, and they should be rewarded for what they do.

“We’ve just got to make sure that that doesn’t become a reason or an excuse to exploit others and treat people unreasonably. So it’s getting the balance of those things correct.”

Real Life is a weekly interview show where John Cowan speaks with prominent guests about their life, upbringing, and the way they see the world. Tune in Sundays from 7.30pm on Newstalk ZB or listen to the latest full interview here.