Wellington’s Only Progressive Mayoral Candidate? An Interview with Alex Baker

By Darcy Lawrey (he/him)

If you’ve been following the Wellington mayoral race, you’ve likely heard about Ray Chung, Andrew Little and maybe Karl Tiefenbacher. But on June 9, former chartered accountant Alex Baker entered the race. I sat down with him to hear his case for the capital’s top job. 

Baker explains that it was a feeling of guilt which compelled him to run. 

“I was just having such a nice time with my kids, gardening, et cetera, when I just started feeling a bit guilty, like, I am selfishly doing DIY in my house, when I could be like putting my skills to use to try and deal with some of these issues that my kids are going to grow up and face.” 

And looking around at the competition, he didn’t feel reassured.

“Wellington would be better off electing an empty seat, than having Ray Chung as mayor,” he says. 

Baker is no more enthused about the centre-left contender either. 

“Andrew [Little] is the left-leaning candidate, but I just don’t believe for a second that he actually cares about the city making progress, […] he's not focussed on things that are going to make this city more affordable, more sustainable, that are going to make the city a place that people want to move to.” 

In May, Little told the council it would be “unethical” to continue signing contracts for the Golden Mile pedestrianisation project. Baker calls this decision “dogshit” and warns that delaying the upgrades could inflate the cost from $100 million to $250 million if central government funding is withdrawn. He is the only major candidate who supports continuing the ambitious project, kicked off by Tory Whanau. 

Baker is also highly critical of the city’s long-term underinvestment in its central business district, particularly Courtenay Place. 

“This was a really great vibrant place. And then, for 10 years, we thought that the government was going to invest in making it better, so we stopped spending money. And now it's a shithole.” He says.

According to him, the Golden Mile upgrades are key to revitalise the area—not just “a bit of paint and water-blasting”.

On student issues, Baker aligns with the Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association’s (VUWSA) campaign tagline “No Work, Shit Pay, Why Stay?”

“100 percent,” he says. “Why would anyone stay, when there’s shit pay? That’s exactly what my campaign is about […] purposeful, well-paid work is why people stay in cities.”

His flagship policy is to overhaul how the council calculates rates— shifting from total capital value (including buildings) to land value alone. He argues this would drive investment in affordable housing and discourage land banking. 

“Land bankers and owners of underdeveloped, high value land will pay more,” he says. “This will either incentivise them to put the land to better use, or ensure they pay their fair share.”

Baker also supports improving priority lanes for public transport, working with mana whenua, and compensating businesses for disruption caused by city-improvement work. 

In addition to running for mayor, Baker is standing for a councillor seat in the Eastern General Ward. While he expresses frustration at the lack of media coverage his campaign has received, he says public response has been encouraging. Having largely self-funded his campaign, he insists he’s serious—and he wants to win.

Enrol to vote at vote.nz to have your say in the local election on October 11, 2025.