Barry Soper: How did Tory Whanau get the Wellington mayoralty?

If you have wondered how someone like Tory Whanau could win the mayoralty of our country's capital city, then wonder no more.

It's the same reason why one of the country's most revered mayors in recent years, Dame Kerry Prendergast, lost her nine-year grip on the city's mayoralty to another unfathomable choice, Celia Wade-Brown.

It's not because both Whanau and Wade-Brown are Greens and it's not because both of them love cycleways, despite vocal ratepayer opposition to the amount of money being spent on Wellington cycleways.

It's because of the single transferrable voting system that saw them winning against all odds. It's the system where you vote for candidates on a preferential system, where once a quota's been reached for a candidate, they drop out and the votes for the second preference kicks in - and so on until a winner is found.

Celia Wade-Brown has finally made it to where Whanau would like to be, in Parliament for the weird and wacky Greens. Whanau may have blotted her copybook though, initially rejecting her previously held Green credentials until she won the mayoralty, and then embracing them afterwards.

This is the first citizen of the country's capital who lacks the intellectual rigor to remember what she said at the beginning of an interview, only to contradict it later. Whose understanding of governance is as deep as a puddle.

Who seeks forgiveness for doing a runner on paying for a restaurant meal because she has an alcohol problem, who clearly suffers from an attention deficit disorder and has had weeks off work because she's had Covid more times than Andrew Bayly's said he's sorry.

Is there any wonder then why Simeon Brown, a Cabinet Minister who looks young enough to be Whanau's son, has decided to lend her a helping hand with a Crown observer to watch over her?

Essentially the observer is Brown's nark. If the council under Whanau's stewardship is as shambolic as we're told it is, then the role will eventually be taken over by a Commissioner.

Even Brown tripped over his tongue in an interview by calling the observer a "Com...," before correcting himself, which is probably a good indication of where it will end up.

After the Government intervention, Whanau's response was to welcome it, saying she hopes the council will finally agree to the elusive long term plan for the troubled city.

But then the trolls got to work on her Instagram account telling her the decision was a disgraceful hit job and suggested the politicians behind it were corrupt and suggesting she hold tight until they're voted out of power.

Despite earlier saying she will happily work with the Crown observer, Whanau signalled she liked the damning comments on her account about one being appointed - that is, until the ghoulish media noticed them and suddenly the likes became un-likes.

And that's the inconsistency that's become the hallmark of Whanau's leadership. The cost of the observer overseeing the way the council operates - and comes at the expense of the long-suffering Wellington ratepayer.

But if this madness is allowed to continue, perhaps getting rid of the mayor will be a small price to pay.

Barry Soper is a New Zealand political journalist, and has been featured regularly on radio and television since the 1970s. Currently, Soper's main role is political editor at Newstalk ZB, a radio network in New Zealand.