Candidate Kōrero: Julie-Anne Genter

Words by Maia Ingoe (she/her) 

Julie-Anne Genter regularly braves the cold for a swim in the South Coast’s marine reserve, Taputeranga. “It’s really magic,” she says. So it was an easy choice to film a campaign video there—until a whale visited Island Bay the day of their filming, disrupting their plans. Genter wasn’t disappointed. What a better sign, she thought, for a Green campaign than a whale visiting. She posted on Twitter: “This is basically an endorsement, right?” 

A Green Party MP since 2011, this is the first time Genter has put her name forward for the Rongotai electorate where she lives with her family. After current Rongotai MP Paul Eagle’s failed mayoralty run led him to bow out of the contest, Genter said “it made sense” for her to stand. “The fact that the incumbent Labour MP is not standing, it meant there was a real opportunity for the Greens, especially I think because [Rongotai is] a very progressive electorate.” 

The Rongotai seat has been held by Labour since 1996. But in the 2020 election, the Green Party received 23.58% of the party vote in the electorate, shadowing Labour's 52% dominance. “National has no show in the electorate, the Greens have already been coming in second without trying,” Genter says.

Is this a serious two-ticks Green campaign? “Definitely,” said Genter. “We are throwing everything at winning the seat.” 

Housing

One of Genter’s three top priorities is increasing affordable and sustainable housing. “One of the key focuses of the Greens is capping rents—so they can't grow so far—and investing in new, sustainable housing.” 

The Green Party policy is to prevent landlords and property managers from increasing rent above 3% annually, alongside introducing a rental warrant of fitness. “The private housing stock is in a dire state, and renters don't have enough protection. We have the Healthy Home Standards, but those aren't particularly effective and they’re not enforced well.” Genter said that fixing those standards were crucial to providing a “warm, dry, liveable environment”. 

“In the interim, we need to build more.” To do this? Freeing up zoning and improving infrastructure to support high quality housing density. 

While Genter owns her family house in Berhampore, she also had a brief stint as a landlord before selling her previous apartment. “I think we were good landlords, but we didn’t want to be landlords.” 

Genter said “I would like, in my neighbourhood, more density done well”, highlighting that access to services and employment within neighbourhoods is important. “Just houses alone doesn't help people, because people need to be able to get to jobs and the shops and the dentist and the doctor and the early childhood centre and the kindergarten and, you know, you need to do it all.” 

Transport

Genter says that “buses have really languished”, despite Rongotai having the highest bus use in Aotearoa and the fourth highest bike use for commuting. “I think I can really help champion practical solutions that will mean more buses, better buses, light rail, and more options for people who want to use bikes and e-bikes to be able to get around safely.” 

She is in support of a light rail corridor from Newtown to Island Bay and creating cycle lanes that prioritise the “safe and efficient movement of people”. “Bikes take way less space than cars. If you want to enable more people to move around the city at lower cost, bikes are a better way to do that than cars,” she said. As well as city routes such as that through Adelaide road, she’s in support of proposals that create cycle lanes through green spaces such as the town belt, such as that from Trails Wellington. 

While she’s in support of Let’s Get Wellington Moving, she said the problem is “it’s still kind of focused on road-based transport”, with projects such as a second Mount Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve improvements which are “hugely carbon and cost intensive”. 

Instead, Genter promotes public transport solutions for the Eastern suburbs: buses, cycling, and ferries. Genter would support Wellington’s harbour ferry, East by West, to build a second electric ferry. She would also provide services to Miramar Wharf, alongside planned Seatoun Wharf services, as a quick improvement whilst light rail is under construction. “When you look at the differential and costs, like it's only about 20, maybe 30 million to make the wharf changes that would enable this very service to Miramar.” 

The bus driver shortage, for Genter, goes back to the private ownership of bus operations, underfunding, and a lack of long-term planning by the last National government. But a lot of it comes back to affordability of housing. “We need more affordable housing in Wellington so that people like bus drivers, firefighters, and teachers, and other core essential workers can afford to live in their name in this community where they're working.” 

Public Services 

The third priority for Genter is public services, with the Green policy priorities of free dental care and a wealth tax to support funding public services. 

“We have a lot of inequality in the electorate… there's renters, people in social housing, council housing, refugees who've been resettled, and there’s a lot of students who are basically living in poverty because we haven't properly supported them to study.” 

Genter is in support of VUWSA’s Universal Study Wage for All campaign. The Greens’ guaranteed minimum income policy also offers a universal $385 allowance per week. 

“Closing that gap in providing support and universal public services for everyone through a fairer tax system would be our priority, that I think would very much affect the entire electorate.” 

The Green tax policy includes a tax-free bracket for the first $10k, a higher tax rate for earners over $180,000, and a wealth tax, in which the top 1% pay a 2.5% tax on assets over $4m for a couple or $2m for an individual. Genter notes this is a tax cut for 95% of New Zealanders. 

The Greens’ wealth tax is ambitious, especially considering that a wealth tax and a capital gains tax has been ruled out by Chris Hipkins. To this, Genter says it’s up to voters—“Every vote we get helps us get more representation”—but that a Green majority government will happen one day: “I have no doubt.” 

Climate Change

“The Greens are a growing movement globally because of the challenges we're facing. Climate change is becoming so undeniable. And even though all the other parties talk about climate change, they don't have it in their DNA.”

Climate action is interlinked with housing and transport, Genter says. As for climate adaptation, she’s in support of nature-based solutions such as marine reserves and kelp forests to buffer against sea level rise. 

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“I think Wellington has so much potential,” Genter says, but its growth is reliant on improving transport and housing. “If you get those things right, then everything else starts to fall into place.” 

While her Labour and National opponents for the Rongotai seat are both “lovely people”, she says “inherently, those parties don’t really grasp the changes that are needed to deliver”. 

Genter’s message to students? “Your vote is powerful.” 

“I believe the Greens have the solutions for students and we'll have your back. But ultimately, the power will go to the people who show up.”