Windbag: Why Wellington's vibe shift is coming in 2026
Windbag is The Spinoff's Wellington issues column, written by Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Subscribe to the Windbag newsletter to receive columns early.
Wellington spends an inordinate amount of time naval-gazing about vibes or the perceived lack thereof. Vibes are ill-defined, intangible, immeasurable but ever-present, and any effort to change them is more art than science.
If there is one moment that triggered the capital's vibecession, it would be the 2013 Seddon earthquake. Then, the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, Covid-19, public sector layoffs and a general economic downturn. It's been a long, slow rolling maul of decline.
When understanding the city's vibes, we shouldn't overthink it. Media and politicians can get too in-the-weeds, thinking too much about budgets and rates and consultations, but those things aren't what shape vibes. Vibes are just another way of describing word-of-mouth. When people have conversations about their city, either with their fellow residents or with tourists, what do they talk about?
At a basic level, cities are experiential. They're a dense collection of stuff to do, places to go, things to see, and people to meet. Cities have good vibes when people are talking about this great new place they tried that you simply must check out (restaurants, gigs, new developments, tourist attractions, activities). They develop bad vibes when there is a dearth of exciting new stuff, and when the existing stuff is declining.
That's what's happened in Wellington for the past decade. Many major buildings and activity centres have closed, and there have been few new developments to counterweight the loss.
However, that's about to change. I'm predicting a significant vibe shift as early as next year (and no, it'll have nothing to do with the new mayor). Several major projects are due to be completed in 2026 (provided construction schedules don't change) that will give locals and visitors something to be excited about.
Te Matapihi Central Library: due to open March 2026
Wellington's Central Library closed in March 2019 after an engineers' report raised concerns about earthquake safety. The council was not legally obliged to close the building, but then mayor Justin Lester said he felt 'morally obliged'.
Following the closure, there was an extended fight over whether it was better to demolish the building and rebuild something new or to try to repair and upgrade the existing building. In the midst of the debate, Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga listed it as a category 1 heritage building despite it being less than 30 years old. 'Save our library' successfully pushed for the council to retrofit the building with base isolators and other earthquake safety features for $189 million.
Whether it was the right choice or not, there's no point relitigating the decisions. The money is spent, and the rebuild is nearly complete. When the library reopens in March next year, it'll be a moment of celebration. Losing the 'living room of the city' was a huge vibe killer, and getting a new, better version back will give people something worth talking about.
Te Whare Whakarauika Wellington Town Hall: due to open in July 2026
Another long and complex collision of earthquake damage and heritage protections, the Town Hall closed in 2013 after the Seddon earthquake. Repairs were initially budgeted at $30 million but ballooned out as high as $330m due to a messy mixture of scope creep and sunk-cost fallacy. (It should be noted that part of the increased cost was to create custom spaces for the new National Music Centre.)
However, like the library, what's done is done. The money has already been spent. The good news is that progress is ahead of schedule. The latest council update moved the expected opening forward by eight months to July 2026.
The Town Hall is an important and impressive public building that can be a point of civic pride. Importantly, it will add another much-needed performance venue to the city, meaning Wellington can host events, providing more flow-on commerce for nearby businesses.
Te Ngākau Civic Precinct: due to open in March 2026
The entire Civic Square plaza is currently closed for a makeover. The timing is ideal; the whole place is a dead zone due to the Central Library and Town Hall construction, and City Gallery has temporarily moved to the National Library.
Civic Square will open in March 2026 alongside the library, with new paving and landscaping. It's a vital public space for gathering, hanging out or eating lunch, so having a new and refreshed area to experience will be something for people to talk about.
Te Ara Tupua: due to open in April 2026
After flooding in 2013 and 2015, it became clear that Wellington needed a seawall to protect the railway line and highway between the city and the Hutt. The great bonus when you build a seawall is that you can put a shared cycling and walking path on top and add a great public amenity for minimal additional cost.
However, NZTA Waka Kotahi got cheeky with the numbers and funded the entire $348.7 million project through its cycling budget, even though it was primarily intended to protect the road and rail. This left little money for other cycling projects nationwide.
Despite the dodgy funding, the shared walking and cycling path will be truly remarkable. Named Te Ara Tupua and designed with mana whenua, the project will include five artificial gravel beaches providing access to the water for fishing and diving, and six new gathering spaces with planting, seating and bike stands. A rail overbridge is designed to honour Te Wharepouri, a significant rangatira who lived in the area.
The western coast of Wellington Harbour offers stunning views, but until now, they've only been accessible out of the window of a moving vehicle. Te Ara Tupua opens that area to people. For commuters, especially on e-bikes, the safe and scenic route will be a vast improvement over the current option, a terrifying ride along the shoulder of a busy highway.
For recreational bikers, it's even more exciting. Te Ara Tupua will link up the Great Harbour Way, meaning there will be a protected, paved, coastal cycleway from Miramar to Days Bay (and eventually from Pencarrow to Owhiro Bay, a distance of 70km). It will become a must-do activity and tourist attraction. East by West ferries are already planning for a surge in traffic from people crossing to Days Bay with their bikes and riding back to the city (or vice versa).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Spinoff
5 hours ago
- The Spinoff
Echo Chamber: Aussie roolz, NZ droolz
Every party in parliament agrees Australia is richer, cooler, prettier, better dressed, and will probably steal your man. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff's dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. Did you know that the different parties in parliament have fundamental disagreements about economic policy? The New Zealand Labour Party thinks everything in this country is fucked because of the current government. The New Zealand National Party thinks everything in this country is fucked because of the previous government (the one run by the New Zealand Labour Party). New Zealand First, meanwhile, thinks everything in this country is fucked because of the word 'Aotearoa'. The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand think this country is fucked because of a long-standing guillotine shortage. Te Pāti Māori think the country is fucked because of an Atlas Network conspiracy to destroy indigenous rights. And the Act Party thinks the country is fucked because sometimes university professors say mean things about David Seymour. Of course, none of them are right. The country is fucked because RJ's stopped making Jaffas. After an extended winter break, the members of New Zealand's parliament have returned to Wellington to resume arguing with one another. One might have hoped that over the break, they might have figured out some new angles, but alas. It's all the same shit. During Wednesday's question time, Labour's Chris Hipkins and Barbara Edmonds were very keen to hammer the government over a new builder sentiment report, which showed the construction sector cratering with 15,000 job losses and masses of workers moving to Australia. They blamed the current government for cancelling a whole bunch of projects to build state homes, school upgrades, hospitals and public transport. National's Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis responded with a formal 'nuh-uh it's your fault' and blamed the previous government for spending too much money on nonsense like state homes, school upgrades, hospitals and nonexistent light rail; thereby contributing to inflation, forcing the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates and creating a recession. Both major parties are essentially stuck in an ever-revolving hamster wheel of argument, where neither side is entirely wrong and neither side is entirely right. National swept to power on a wave of voter dissatisfaction with inflation and stagnating growth. Many people fairly blamed the Labour government's policies for contributing to that inflation. But while inflation has come down, economic conditions under the current government haven't turned around as quickly as many would have hoped. Nearly two years into the government, Labour hopes voters are forgetting about the last government, and National is determined to remind them. Finger-pointing is reaching record levels. Following on from the previous day's theme, Green leader Chlöe Swarbrick took aim at the government for the number of New Zealanders leaving the country – 191 people per day, according to analysis from Bernard Hickey. She quoted one young worker who described New Zealand with the phrase 'No work. Shit pay. Why stay?' That earned her a telling-off from speaker Gerry Brownlee, who is clearly feeling a bit sensitive about swears after Brooke van Velden dropped the c-bomb back in May. Using emigration rates as evidence of a government's failings is an old tactic. John Key used it with particular effectiveness as opposition leader, famously using Wellington Stadium in his 2008 election campaign to emphasise the number of people leaving for Australia annually. There was no attempt to defend this point from the government benches. Their response was, basically, 'yeah, obviously people are leaving, it sucks here, but it's the last government's fault'. 'Australia, for example, is a wealthier country than New Zealand and can pay higher wages,' said Nicola Willis. Everyone in parliament agrees Australia is richer, cooler, prettier, better dressed, and will probably steal your man. They're just arguing about who to blame. Luxon said the emigration numbers proved the Green Party should support fossil fuel industries. 'Where do Kiwis go when they go to Australia? They go to work in oil and gas and mining,' he said. (Are there a lot of mines on the Gold Coast?) Winston Peters, too, kept with the theme of repeating the same old hits. When Green MP Benjamin Doyle asked questions to health minister Casey Castello about the government falling behind on its goal of eliminating locally transmitted HIV in Aotearoa, Peter was very angry about that last word. 'Point of order, Mr Speaker. How did this question get approved by you or your staff when in the last few words, he mentioned a country that is not known in this world, nor was it recognised by the United Nations?' he said. Brownlee made Doyle repeat the question – they simply changed it to 'Aotearoa New Zealand'. This is an ongoing game between the Greens and New Zealand First, which has no foreseeable end. The more Peters complains about the word 'Aotearoa', the more the Greens will keep saying it. Around and around we go, spiralling continually inwards, getting nowhere. One for the record Parliament often welcomes delegations of visiting international politicians to sit in the public gallery and observe question time. The speaker traditionally kicks things off by welcoming the manuhiri, and the MPs stand to applaud them in acknowledgement. On Wednesday, a small group from France was in attendance. During his questions, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi focused on concerns raised by the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Albert K Barume, about the Regulatory Standards Bill. But it became clear that Waititi didn't know how to pronounce 'rapporteur'.
Newsroom
12 hours ago
- Newsroom
Govt winds up council reform storm
Analysis: It's a sentiment likely to set pulses racing among the current crop of Government ministers. In 2010, four-term councillor Bryan Cadogan aimed to unseat sitting Clutha mayor Juno Hayes by running on a platform of tying rates to inflation and focusing on core services. Cadogan won by 354 votes, turning around the previous election result in the district hemmed in by Dunedin, Central Otago, and Southland. Now, the Clutha mayor, who isn't running for re-election in October's elections, finds himself, and his sector, in the firing line of an interventionist Government considering rates caps, and introducing legislation to ensure councils focus on – that's right – core services. The Local Government NZ conference in Ōtautahi/Christchurch was formally launched on Wednesday with a video address, of less than two minutes, by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Councils need to get back to basics, he said, spending wisely and delivering value. What does that mean? 'Prioritising pipes over vanity projects,' explained the prime minister, flanked by national flags. 'It means roads over reports, and it means real outcomes.' When the address finished, conference MC Miriama Kamo started clapping loudly, joined somewhat unenthusiastically by a smattering of conference attendees. 'I'm the only one clapping, I see,' Kamo quipped. Cadogan says the Government's message landed 'pretty flatly' with him. 'It's getting a wee bit tedious getting asked time and time again to do the impossible.' Chris Bishop, the minister overseeing resource management reforms, took a more fire and brimstone approach than his leader, saying there was shrinking evidence councils were cutting their cloth and enabling growth. 'You cry out for more financing and funding tools. We're giving them to you. You ask for a better, simpler planning system. We're giving this to you, too. 'We are getting our house in order. It's time you sorted yours out.' (Some would have thought that line a bit rich, given analysis of May's Budget suggests Luxon's coalition will increase gross debt by more in five years than the Covid-affected previous government did in six.) Bishop announced a 'plan stop', warning councils not to waste money and time reviewing city and district plans, and regional policy statements – with narrow exceptions – ahead of an overhaul of resource management laws due to land in 2027. 'The time for excuses is over,' Chris Bishop told the Local Government NZ conference in Christchurch. Photo: David Williams Sam Broughton, mayor of Selwyn, just south of Christchurch, and president of Local Government NZ, says: 'It was really good to have that certainty.' Is that just common sense? Broughton says the progress on reforms is pleasing, but adds: 'It feels like councils have been in this reform storm for six or seven years, and has just been ongoing change without actually landing something.' Local Government Minister Simon Watts introduced the bill to focus councils on core services, which is expected to have its first reading on Thursday. ('It feels like the Government has a caricature of local government that isn't true,' Broughton says. He notes 80 percent of Selwyn council's capital spending is on pipes and roads.) Watts' explanation of why it was necessary to force councils to concentrate on core services, like roads, water and rubbish, sent offended ripples through the conference crowd. The minister used the analogy of setting boundaries for his children. Letting them do whatever they liked might lead to bad choices, he suggested. Instead, he might tell them, 'Hey, you've got these five things to do'. Among the crowd's murmurs, one conference-goer shouted: 'Just a bit patronising, mate!' From the conference stage, Watts appeared to pour cold water on the idea regional councils were about to be scrapped. 'We're thinking about it,' Watts said, adding ministers were cognisant 'there's already a huge amount of reform underway in your sector'. Bishop tried to mollify concerns about potential environmental consequences from the audience, saying a new Natural Environment Act would focus on biodiversity, ecology and human health. Later, the minister tells Newsroom: 'There will be environmental limits that will be set through the new regime.' (After a remit passed at Local Government NZ's annual general meeting on Wednesday, councils called for a review of local government's structure.) Christopher Luxon beamed in to the Local Government NZ conference in Christchurch. Photo: David Williams Government reforms for local government include the network-merging replacement for three waters, Local Water Done Well, waving city and regional deals under the noses of councils, and offering different funding and financing options for infrastructure to speed up house-building. Back to Cadogan, the Clutha mayor, who talks to Newsroom while walking to a negotiation with other councils on water services. He says despite Government rhetoric, councils can't be expected to achieve the triumvirate of lower rates, infrastructure upgrades and under-control debt. 'The Government know it, we know it, but we just keep on getting this.' Clutha council's experience puts those financial management challenges in stark relief. In 2019, its external borrowings were $5 million. Five years later, it had ballooned to $123m. To add salt to the financial wound, this year's average rates rise was an 'ungodly' 16.59 percent. How did this happen? 'Three waters, wholly and solely,' Cadogan says. (Last year, the mayor predicts the financial consequences of the 'three waters debacle' will hit. In the latest annual plan, he says 89.4 percent of this year's rates rise is attributable to roads, rubbish and three waters.) Clutha's unfortunate figures are: the third-longest water reticulation network in the country, with 27 sewage or water plants on 30-year consents, and, crucially, only 18,500 people to pay for it. Of the country's 565 drinking water quality breaches last year, 338 or 60 percent were in Clutha. 'We all want lower rates increases,' says Sam Broughton, the Selwyn district mayor and Local Government NZ president. Photo: David Williams Cadogan gives the example of a water upgrade for the tiny town of Waihola: running an 18.5km pipeline from Milton's water treatment plant oto the reservoir cost $6.3m. After years of problems with water quality and quantity, boil water notices were removed for all but 20 of the town's 247 houses. 'Then we go to Heriot, and then we go to Tapanui, then Owaka, then Clinton,' Cadogan says. 'It's a financial delusion that you can have rates cap, you can have debt ceilings, and you have to do this infrastructure update.' It would have been better for the National-led coalition to lift the hood on Labour's three waters policy and chuck out what they didn't like, Broughton says, instead of scrapping it and starting again. He thinks resolving water across the country might take seven or eight more steps. Policy lurches and delays cost millions of dollars and can, of course, increase council rates. Many councils might feel aggrieved by the ministerial attack given the National Party's pre-election commitment to devolution and localism. Luxon promised to reshape the relationship between central and local government. 'It does feel like every party in opposition is a localist,' Broughton says, 'and then as soon as they're in power, they become a creature that draws all the more power to themselves.' Broughton was applauded by conference attendees for his opening comments – made before Bishop's address. 'We all want lower rates increases. I want lower rates increases, I know you want lower rates increases, I hear from my community they want lower rates increases. But it can't be at the expense of our children picking up the tab because of our negligence today.' The Selwyn mayor tells Newsroom a key problem is councils have few alternatives to raise money. The best tool the Government could give councils, in his opinion, is to return GST spending on new houses locally. 'That would be a game-changer for us,' he says, noting between 1000 and 3000 houses have been built each year in Selwyn over the past five or six years. Broughton's also a fan of bed taxes, something Queenstown's council has, for years, been pushing for. Luxon said this week the Government's not actively considering a bed tax. 'It has just been an avalanche of unstoppable figures. Unstoppable.' Bryan Cadogan, Clutha mayor This is the second year ministers have used the Local Government NZ conference to berate councils for spending on 'nice-to-haves'. Last year, the venue, Wellington's $180m Tākina centre, was in the crosshairs. But Christchurch's half-billion-dollar monolithic convention centre, Te Pae, is of a different ilk – paid for by taxpayers as a post-quake anchor project. Luxon, Watts and Bishop did miss a trick in Christchurch, though. A 15-minute walk away from Te Pae is the new stadium, Te Kaha – a loss-making facility that will cost ratepayers $453m to build. The city's ratepayers face a three-year, cumulative rates rise of 24.66 percent that without the stadium, that would have been 19.43 percent. Using Luxon's words, the stadium isn't roads, rubbish or water, and tends, perhaps, more towards a vanity project. The last word goes to Cadogan, the outgoing Clutha mayor. He hopes a water services 'umbrella' with other councils will help his district save on infrastructure spending. 'We've been basically a stand-alone council for the last five years. Have a look what that did to our debt,' he says. 'I'm gutted as a mayor. I pride myself on really understanding figures. I understand them all right. It has just been an avalanche of unstoppable figures. Unstoppable.'
The Spinoff
a day ago
- The Spinoff
Echo Chamber: Shane Jones, greatest ever Australian politician?
Nearly 30,000 New Zealanders crossed the ditch last year. Could the minister for resources be next? Echo Chamber is The Spinoff's dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. The last time the 54th parliament of New Zealand was gathered in the House for question time was about two weeks ago. Back then, the price of butter was the main thing on the minds of the Labour Party caucus, who appeared to see the rising cost of dairy products as a sign of the end times. On Tuesday, the new objective was to put the spotlight on the nearly 30,000 New Zealanders who left the country for Australia in 2024. So long as there remains plenty of problems to pin to the government, Labour won't have to make the effort to dream up any of its own policies. There have been two significant changes in the House since then as well. The death of Takutai Tarsh Kemp leaves an open seat for either Labour to bring in the next candidate on its list or for former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara to make her parliamentary debut for Te Pāti Māori, depending on who wins the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection on September 6. And, following the sudden departure of NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich, the House welcomed a new politician into its fold: David Williams. There was heckling from the opposition benches right off the bat when Labour leader Chris Hipkins rose to ask prime minister Christopher Luxon whether he stood by the government's actions, which he took as an opportunity to laud vocational education minister Penny Simmonds' recent Te Pūkenga restructure announcement, but the jeers drowned him out. When Hipkins came back with 'how many Kiwis have left New Zealand since he became prime minister?', a group of high school students sitting in the public gallery gasped 'ooouusshh!' Resources minister Shane Jones, answering a question from NZ First MP Andy Foster about economic growth in his sector, announced – 'with characteristic modesty' – that he had recently travelled to Singapore and Sydney, and amazed his peers by waxing lyrical about overturning the 'foolish' ban on oil and gas exploration and giving a 'glowing account' of the fast-track laws, the 'most permissive regime in Australasia'. The Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick raised her eyebrows. Jones' characteristic modesty shone through again. 'I have endeavoured to assure investors in the resources sector that we have decriminalised the coal industry,' the minister declared. 'I had the privilege of addressing a host of mining investors [and] professionals in Sydney … They regard the quality of leadership I have shown on behalf of the government of such stature that they invited me to be a politician in Canberra.' 'Take it up!' Labour's Duncan Webb jeered. It's good to know that despite burgeoning opportunities overseas, our best talent stays at home. It wasn't over there. NZ First leader and foreign affairs minister – as he liked to remind his coalition partners before he entered the House on Tuesday – Winston Peters decided to rise and ask the minister if he was saying he'd stop 'virtue signalling' by using local coal rather than 'inferior' offshore coal? It gave Brownlee a moment to consider the importance of phrasing – well, he said, that question is sort of interesting, 'because it's hardly factual as soon as you say 'virtue signalling', but anyway'. When health minister Simeon Brown took patsies from fellow National Party MP Carlos Cheung, it gave deputy prime minister David Seymour a chance to show off his wealth of knowledge on political theory by quoting China's former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping: 'Does the minister subscribe to the philosophy … that it doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches the mice?' Brown grinned and rose to his feet, but Brownlee wouldn't let him answer – it would only be a reasonable question, the speaker said, if the minister was some kind of expert in rodent control. The Act Party leader sought leave for his question to be answered, but was shut down again. 'Well, the House is the master of its own destiny,' Seymour said, sagely. Then Swarbrick's voice popped up: 'Get a grip!' Back on the brain drain, Labour's jobs and income spokesperson Ginny Andersen wanted to know whether finance minister Nicola Willis thought the government was doing enough to 'deliver jobs' despite the tens of thousands headed across the Tasman. Andersen quoted Luxon and Seymour's sentiments that Aotearoa is where the opportunities are and having people leave is 'bad', to which Seymour took offence. Who would want a deputy prime minister who thinks New Zealanders leaving the country is a good thing, Seymour asked, then suggested that such a thing might be possible if the New Zealander doing the leaving was Ginny Andersen. His comment had Brownlee reminding the House, yet again, that question time is not an opportunity to attack the opposition. Up in the backbenches, Labour MP Shanan Halbert made his read of Seymour's comments clear: 'Misogynist!' Maybe Seymour could've tried it a different way: it doesn't matter if the cat is in New Zealand or Australia, as long as it still agrees the government is doing a good job.
