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- Date published:
9:48 am, May 21st, 2026 - 13 comments
Categories: election 2026, national, public services, same old national -
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Wellington is being deliberately targeted by National and it is destroying the third largest region of New Zealand.
In December 2023 the National-led government cancelled up to $7.4 billion of transport funding by simply removing the Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme. This would have been a huge civil construction boom for Wellington, with over a decade of projects. The seaport upgrade for the new ferries was also downgraded following the cancellation and re-scaling of IREX.
By the end of 2024, an estimated 9,500 public sector jobs were cut by the National-led government. Roughly 42% of public servants are based in Wellington. Now the National government plans to cut another 9,000 public sector jobs in their next Parliamentary term, and this time from Departments with a higher majority of staff based in Wellington.
There is almost zero political downside for National in this: by geographical electorate National pretty much rules New Zealand already and Wellington’s many public servants are clustered in the seats of Ohariu, Wellington Central, Rongotai, Remutaka, and Mana. These are some of the most left-leaning electorates still standing in New Zealand, and they are where the majority of the previous and current job losses are targeted. Minister Willis is no longer contesting a seat in the region and the only National MP with an electorate seat in the area is Chris Bishop. The cruel inter-National politics of that is if Bishop loses his seat and doesn’t make the list, there is no further oppositional node to resist Willis and Luxon from within caucus. For any Wellington citizen wanting a voice through an electorate, they largely only have opposition MPs to speak to power for them.
Source is Wikipedia.
We know what has happened to Wellington since National’s 2024 Budget public service job cuts: more job losses, this time from hospitality. In 2023 there were at least 146 closures, and over 2025 in 2024. Combined with ongoing liquidations, well over 350+ individual cafes, bars and restaurants have shut their doors since National started their budget cuts.
Notable establishments include Nikau Café which was beside the main library for decades, Sweet Release, Pandas, Myrtle, Pandoro at multiple locations, Bordeaux. Shepherd, Field&Green, and some of the famous bars like Concord, Fortune Favours, and Plonk.
There are also many job losses underway in Palmerston North which again is one of the only other Labour seats still standing. The NZTA regulatory headquarters is based there and that is being gutted with dozens of jobs lost. Fonterra’s research headquarters at Massey University is also being gutted, with many PhD researchers and laboratory staff being let go since all of Fonterra’s value-added lines have just been sold off. Both are high salary averages. It is not uncommon for couples where one works for NZTA and one works for Fonterra to be simultaneously affected.
It gets even worse. Further layoffs that will come with merging its local and regional governments in the near future into a single regionalised entity. These public sector organisations will impact all of the staff of Upper Hutt Council (180 staff), Lower Hutt Council (600 staff), Wellington City Council (1,700 staff), Porirua Council (400 staff), Kapiti Coast Council (450 staff), and Wellington Regional Council (900 staff). That is a total of a further 4,235 staff who are in a state of high uncertainty and many of whom will lose their jobs, on top of the 9,500 job losses previously and up to 9,000 more to come.
House prices in the Wellington region have gone down in a thump and are not recovering. In one month alone rents in Wellington according to TradeMe figures went down on average 3.2%.
Source is TradeMe.
The Wellington housing market has had one of the steepest declines in New Zealand, with values now between 17% and 27% below their 2021/22 peaks. It’s still getting worse. While the rest of the country has started to stabilise, Wellington remains one of the weakest regions in New Zealand.
It also demolishes the remaining public sector union membership, by ensuring that remaining staff following all the restructures are guided towards non-union membership in their new contracts..
Analysis for the remaining purpose and capacity of an activist state will be for others.
The immediate takeaway is clear. Wellington is our third biggest region by population and this National-led government has and will continue to devastate its economy and its people. It is the worst catastrophe to befall Wellington since the early 1990s.
Government is and will always be the largest employer in New Zealand, and doing to Wellington what large manufacturing plants have done to Westport, Nelson, Hastings, Kawarau, Kaitaia, Tokoroa and many more centres is a move of abject cruelty that explicitly tells highly qualified New Zealanders to leave New Zealand with their family, capital, and human capacity and never come back.
It is also clear that National is consistently and successfully attacking the primary stronghold of the lefts’ vote in New Zealand by simply killing off their jobs year after year. The final islands of the electoral left are having their lights dimmed.
Unless we all change this government, National will continue to destroy Wellington.
Whilst it's convenient to blame the Nat's for Wellingtons woes, and cutting public servants in Wellington is basically a free hit for them electorally a massive part of Wellingtons issues are self inflicted. The massive rates rises both residentially and commercially over the last decade or so have had a pretty big impact on disposable income for households and loaded increase cost into businesses at a time of economic downturn.
It will be interesting to see if Andrew Little follows through on his pledge to reduce the residential and commercial rates differential which currently has the commercial rates at 3.7 times higher than residential rates.
'Once regional council rates are included, Wellington City households spend 4.7 percent of median incomes on rates'
' rates affordability worsened in every suburb, the Infometrics report found, with rates rising from 1.8-3 percent of household incomes in 2012, to 1.9-3.5 percent in 2017, and up to 2.3-5.2 percent by 2025.'
'become the most unaffordable once measured as a share of capital value, at 2.4%. By comparison, commercial rates in Auckland and Christchurch sit at 0.9 percent'
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/591687/new-report-shows-wellington-rates-now-among-nz-s-least-affordable
Wellingtons getting squeezed hard and its residents are stuck between a rock and hard place.
You could add the insurance costs in Wellington and the looming large increase in water charges.
But
1.National & ACT & NZF will face consequences on the party list vote in Wellington-Palmerston North & Wairarapa regions.
2.half of the public service jobs lost will be in the regions (merging of front offices).
Probably the having shit being dumped into the ocean and leaks springing up in the streets while rates have increased like topsy wouldn't help either.
I think there has been a lot of under-investment over the years, and I would argue, an over-focus on non-essential priorities such as cycleways according to this article, though as pointed out on the article, Tamatha Paul has pushed back on the assertions made.
So blaming it all on a National government definitely isn’t the full picture IMO.
According to this article in The NZ Herald rates have gone from 2.2% of income in 2012 to 3.8% in 2025, and has the least affordable rates in NZ compared to other major centres. That might be more acceptable if infrastructre were impeccable. But, that is far from the case at the moment, as recent events have shown.
Could imply a systemic crisis? Someone on NatRad recently said it's really 2 cities, since Hutt is substantial in population. Rather than blame the mayor for the rates rise, folks there oughta tell each other to rejig their governance on a realistic basis.
You know, as if talking to sheeple that have accidentally achieved political influence: "Proximal! Look it up. Means close together. New cycleway as umbilical cord kinda thing. Interactivity." To salient players in governance: "Hey look, local govt is becoming regional here. Time for operating system upgrade!"
Woah pointing to an NZI article while proclaiming safety "non-essential"!?
I wouldn't want to be a cafe owner in downtown Wellington. The public service cuts will mean a huge drop in custom for these businesses selling coffee and croissants.
But hey, that's the price you pay for efficiency. Perhaps the government thinks all the public servants would vote Labour anyway, so no loss?
IMHO, Wellington copped a lot of damage to infrastructure because of the Seddon and Kaikoura earthquakes.
All of a sudden, apartments and commercial buildings and civic buildings needed demolition or strengthening, costing millions. Not to mention, old water and sewage pipes.
Although the Christchurch rebuild got a lot of government money, I don't think Wellington ever did.
We have only just regained our library and await our Town Hall, still.
There has been stupid things- the convention centre for one.
And don't start me on the issue of contracting out civic works to the private sector and all the escalating costs, rip offs and ticket clipping that goes on right through the country.
Then this government cancelled the lets get Wellington moving project.
The whole thing is a mess.
The repairs to the Central Library and the Old Town Hall made no sense at all. The Central Library repair cost was, in 2020, estimated at $189 million and it finally came in at $217 million. At the time the cost of demolishing it and building a new one of the same size was estimated to be $133 million! Why didn't they follow that approach and save $60+ million?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121595307/rebuilding-wellingtons-central-library-could-cost-67m-less-than-earthquakestrengthening
The original estimate to repair the town hall was $30 million. At that time, 2012, we already built the Michael Fowler that was meant to replace it. The estimate was $30 million and we didn't need anything really. By 2013 it was $43 million, 2014, $60 million, in 2017 $90 million, by 2019 it was $112 million and on and on. The last estimate I have seen is $330 million. All for something that was replaced because we didn't need it and had already replaced it.
Read this article and weep
https://thespinoff.co.nz/wellington/27-10-2023/sunk-costs-how-wellington-town-hall-became-the-ultimate-money-pit
That is what Councils of idiots get up to.
Yep. I wonder if having a Ministry of Works would have made it cheaper. My reckons are, it would.
The problem wasn't what the cost turned out to be.
The problem was that the best solution in both those cases was to demolish the existing building. Then, in the case of the old town hall site turn it into a park or, better still sell it to a developer. With the site of the library build a new building.
No, the fools decided to repair them.
They're planning on a new greenfield capital city. It'll be located in the Kaingaroa.
It'll be called Naypyidaw.
We had the earthquakes in Christchurch. Most has gone well in that infrastructure is largely repaired, and the city has been renewed.
The biggest issue is the monument to stupidity which is the partially restored catherdral.
The Anglican church had huge pressure from hand-wringing interest groups who were demanding it be restored. The church wanted to bowl it and build something new, which they could have done for a fraction of the cost of the restoration, and largely from the insurance proceeds. Now the money has run out, and no-one knows what will happen. IMO the people who were so fervant about getting it restored should drive the project from here on.