Candidate Kōrero: Fleur Fitzsimons

Words by Niamh Vaughan (she/her)

Fleur Fitzsimons is the picture-perfect Labour Party candidate—black blazer, red scarf, and all—with The Spinoff crediting her look to a Labour MP ‘laboratory’. Fitzsimons has been a Wellingtonian for 26 years, ever since she first moved to study Politics and Law at VUW. She joined the VUWSA executive, alongside the current Prime Minister, then VUWSA President, Chris Hipkins. 

Fitzsimons succeeded Hipkins' presidency in 2002. “I was Vice President when [he] was student President here,” she admits, “and we did call him Chippy.”

She stepped up to the Rongotai seat after the departure of current MP Paul Eagle, as she wants “to live in a New Zealand that has taken action on climate change and looks after the most vulnerable.”

After study, and for most of her working life, Fitzsimons worked as a trade union official before becoming a Wellington City councillor in 2017. Her roots in advocacy for both workers and students is something she promises to remember in her candidacy. 

Fitzsimons joined us in the Salient office to discuss her most important campaign issues: climate justice, housing, advocacy, and cost of living. 

Climate Change and Transport

Fitzsimons confidently listed reducing emissions as her number one priority. “We have to respond to climate change,” she proclaimed. 

For her, this starts with delivering a low-emission transport system for Wellington. “We do not have the kind of mass rapid transit that a city of our size, with the projected growth that we know is coming, needs.” Fitzsimons stands behind the controversial Let’s Get Welly Moving project, admitting there’s been a few bumps in the road, but that the initial vision is “sound”. 

“In terms of public transport, the main issues are reliability and affordability,” says Fitzsimons. She supports the implementation of the new on-demand bus service in Tawa and the bus drivers across the country that are currently working towards a fair pay agreement. “I can't be supportive enough for bus drivers [...] because that's inherently important work and they need dignity in that work.”

Housing

“There's no doubt that renters are more vulnerable than homeowners. [...] My vision is for everybody to have a warm, dry home,” says Fitzsimons on her second most pressing issue. “We just haven't built enough homes,” she states, “and the priority for me is building more homes that are warm and dry, and doing it quickly.”

Fitzsimons believes we need to start seeing the densification of our city as a good thing and something that should be welcomed, since “it will bring a whole lot of other benefits alongside more houses, which we desperately need.”

The council’s district plan for densification is supported by Fitzsimons. She hopes to see housing intensified along the rapid transit routes: from the city, through Newtown, and out to Island Bay. This ties back into her stance on climate justice. “If we're going to create low emission cities, we need to make sure that housing is built close to transport.”

Advocacy

For Fitzsimons, the role of a Member of Parliament is to take every tenant’s concerns about breaches of residential tenancy agreements seriously, and to ensure they have access to the right advocacy. “If they can't get results, then I would go in to bat for them,” she says.  

She cites Labour’s “very strong” record in government of introducing the Healthy Homes Standards as evidence of their advocacy for renters.

When asked how these Healthy Homes Standards could be better enforced, Fitzsimons referred back to her time on the city council when they funded the Wellington Community Law Centre to set up a tenancy advocacy service. 

Fitzsimons says that in the Rongotai electorate there are a number of people living in social housing, whether it be Kāinga Ora or through the city council. She expressed interest in setting up a Social Housing Tenants’ Union to help in the way these tenants may need with their respective landlords.

“Most people don't have a voice. There's no tenants’ union for social housing, and from my experience [as] a city councillor, they need a voice.”

Cost Of Living Crisis

When it comes to the cost of living crisis, Fitzsimons admits, “There's always more that we can do.” Her focus is on Aotearoa’s most vulnerable, and she puts students into that category. 

Fitzsimons supports the Labour Government’s increases to the minimum wage, as well as to students’ loan living costs and allowances, even though this move has been criticised as sticking a “bandaid” over the problem. Again, Fitzsimons reiterates that there is still more work to do.

Another Labour action Fitzsimons stands behind is the Prime Minister’s decision to “rule out” a wealth tax. “He's looked at what New Zealanders are up for and can manage this election, and he's made a call to rule out a wealth tax, and I support his call.”

Instead, Fitzsimons focuses on other areas where Labour has helped to ease the cost of living crisis. “I think it's important to remember that Labour has made significant changes in its approach to property speculation.” She goes on to list the removal of interest deductibility and the increase of the bright line test. “Those are steps which landlords haven't liked [but] more first home buyers [are] able to buy homes now.”

Fitzsimons also sees the proposal to remove GST from fresh fruit and vegetables as a good move. She acknowledges that some say it doesn’t go far enough, but iterates that the policy is for the people in the grocery queue who end up having to put food back. 

“Sure, it's not everything, but you need to look at it in the context of the overall package of Labour's cost of living measures and then I think it is a step in the right direction.”

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Fitzsimons urges students to be comparative when it comes to looking over offered policies for this coming election. “[You] need to look at what the alternative is—what a National-ACT Government will do for students—because they do not have a good track record when it comes to delivering for students.”