Celia Wade-Brown

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Celia Wade-Brown
Celia Wade-Brown in 2013
34th Mayor of Wellington
Incumbent
Assumed office
27 October 2010[1]
Preceded by Kerry Prendergast
Personal details
Born (1956-07-12) 12 July 1956
Political party Green Party
Spouse(s) Alastair Nicholson (m. 16 January 1993)

Celia Wade-Brown (born 12 July 1956) is the 34th and current Mayor of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand.

She is the third woman mayor, replacing centre-right Kerry Prendergast. She defeated Prendergast by 176 votes in the 2010 single transferable vote mayoral election, winning a second term in 2013.

She is the second mayor of a major New Zealand city to be a member of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, after Dunedin's Sukhi Turner, but she stood as an independent candidate.


Early life

Born in Paddington, West London, to a British military officer father,[2] Wade-Brown grew up in a council flat.[3] She attended The Holt School in Wokingham, Berkshire, England. After school, she took a gap year in Cape Coast, Ghana, then earned an honours degree in philosophy from the University of Nottingham. She started her professional life with IBM in the United Kingdom,[4] and moved to Wellington in 1983.[3]

As an adult, Wade-Brown discovered and connected with two half-sisters.[2]

Political career

National politics 1996–2002

Wade-Brown first stood for the Green Party as a list candidate (ranked 44th) under the Alliance banner in the 1996 election.[5] In the 1999 election, she stood for the Green Party as a list candidate (ranked 29th).[6] In the 2002 election, she stood for the Green Party as a list candidate (ranked 15th)[7] in the Rongotai electorate and placed third.[8] She did not appear on the Green Party list for the 2005[9] or 2008[10] elections.

Local government politics 1994–current

She was a Wellington City Councillor for the Southern Ward in 1994–1998 and 2001–2010.[3]

In 2010, she contested the mayoralty only, not standing as a councillor; Paul Eagle replaced her as a councillor. Six contenders ran:[4] Wade-Brown won by 24,881 votes to 24,705. She was ahead of Prendergast on a significant number of ballots from the four trailing candidates after they were eliminated, which allowed her to overcome Prendergast's lead of 21,809 to 18,560 after the first iteration.[11]

Wade-Brown is not in favour of Wellington adopting a 'super city' type council like Auckland, though is in favour of reducing the number of councils in greater Wellington from nine to "three or four".[12]

Wade-Brown came under heavy criticism from the business community in early 2013 after the council laid off 150 workers and approved $350,000 in renovations for the mayor's office, seemingly without the mayor and councillors knowing.[13]

After her re-election in October 2013, her priorities for the first 100 days were "the south coast cycle lanes, completing the draft annual plan before Christmas, agreeing on three-year priorities, taking first steps towards a living wage for council staff, slimming down council-owned companies and continuing to improve shared services with other councils."[14]

Community involvement

Wade-Brown was a founding member of the New Zealand Internet Society,[15] a non-profit organisation set up in 1995 dedicated to protecting and promoting the Internet in New Zealand.[16] In 2002 Wade-Brown founded Living Streets Aotearoa,[17] a walking-advocacy organisation with 15 branches. It holds collective membership of the International Federation of Pedestrians, of which she is a Board member.[18]

Wade-Brown is a Friend of Taputeranga Marine Reserve.[19]

Family

She is married to Alastair Nicholson and has two sons.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Celia Wade-Brown wins Wellington mayoralty". The National Business Review. 2010-10-13. Retrieved 2011-12-12. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8021813/Wellington-Mayor-finds-secret-sister
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "New mayor for Wellington". The Dominion Post. 13 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Celia Wade-Brown". Election NZ. Retrieved 26 October 2010. 
  5. ↑ "Part III - Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties" (PDF). Electoral Commission. Retrieved 14 June 2013. 
  6. ↑ "Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 2 July 2013. 
  7. ↑ "Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 2 July 2013. 
  8. ↑ "Official Count Results -- Rongotai". 10 August 2002. Retrieved 2 July 2013. 
  9. ↑ "Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 2 July 2013. 
  10. ↑ "Party Lists of Successful Registered Parties". Electoral Commission. Retrieved 2 July 2013. 
  11. ↑ Watts, Jerram (13 October 2010). "Celia Wade Brown wins Wellington". 3 News. Retrieved 26 October 2010. 
  12. ↑ "No 'super city' for Wellington - mayor". 3 News NZ. January 28, 2013. 
  13. ↑ "'Big job ahead' for struggling council". 3 News NZ. April 22, 2013. 
  14. ↑ Chapman, Katie (14 October 2013). "Wade-Brown's talk is over, time for action". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 14 October 2013. 
  15. ↑ "Council through time". InternetNZ. Retrieved 10 October 2010. 
  16. ↑ "About InternetNZ". InternetNZ. Retrieved 10 October 2010. 
  17. ↑ "eBulletin September 2009". Living Streets Aotearoa. Retrieved 10 October 2010. 
  18. ↑ "Governance". International Federation of Pedestrians. Retrieved 10 October 2010. 
  19. ↑ "Friends of Taputeranga Marine Reserve". Taputeranga Marine Reserve. Retrieved 10 October 2010. 

External links

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Political offices
Preceded by
Kerry Prendergast		 Mayor of Wellington
2010 – present 		Incumbent
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