The Wellington Citizens' Association, was a right-leaning local body electoral ticket in Wellington, New Zealand. It was formed in 1911 by merging the selection process of council candidates of several civic interest groups and business lobby groups. Its main ambitions were to continue to control the Wellington City Council, reduce local spending and deny left-leaning Labour Party candidates being elected.
History
The Citizens' Association was founded in 1907 under the name of the Wellington Citizens League, created with the goal of electing "desirable" candidates to the Wellington City Council to represent the needs of businessmen in the local community.[2] In 1921 the Citizens League was renamed as the Civic League a name it would retain until changing names again to the Citizens' Association in 1932 in the lead up to the 1933 civic elections. The body grew from the earlier Civic League organisation and also absorbed the Greater Wellington Electors' Association and Ratepayers' Association to jointly nominate and endorse candidates for local government. It picked candidates from applicants for Wellington's mayoralty, City Council, Harbour Board and Hospital Board. Despite several publicly embarrassing selection controversies (such as in 1950, 1956 and 1965),[3] the Citizens' Association controlled the council from the time of its inception until finally losing its decades long majority in 1986 when the Labour Party won its first ever majority with Labour's Jim Belich also capturing the mayoralty for Labour.[4] It was less successful in controlling the Mayoralty particularly during the 18 year period of 1956–74 when Labour's Frank Kitts was Mayor.[5]
The last time the Citizens' Association contested an election was a 1997 by-election where it backed Ian Hutchings, who finished second in the Northern Ward.[6] In the lead up to the 1998 mayoral election the Citizens' were considering contesting the mayoralty, with councillor Chris Parkin seen as the most likely candidate.[7] Ultimately it did not contest any seats at the election, instead endorsing the Wellington Alive ticket for the city and regional council. In 1999 it blocked former councillor Bryan Weyburne's attempt to create a new "Citizens and Ratepayers" ticket, arguing it was infringing on the Citizens' Association's name. At the time of the dispute Citizens' Association president Les Stephens stated that the Citizens' were intending to contest the 2001 local elections.[8]
The Citizens' Association, throughout its entire existence, had no formal link with the National Party (which does not contest local elections) or any other political party. Many times opponents attempted to debunk the Citizens' Association claim to possess an "anti-party" ideology (and thusly contrast themselves from Labour candidates) by linking the two.[9]
The matter surfaced several times such as in the 1977 elections when Labour mayoral candidate Sir Frank Kitts stated that he had been informed by Citizens' Association members that the National Party had been using its head office officials to advise the Citizens' Association about its local election campaign and how best to keep Labour out of local office. The director of the National Party, Barrie Leay, said the claim was "totally untrue" and the Citizens' campaign co-ordinator Michael Veal also denied any contact with the National Party.[10][11] In 1983 Citizens' leader, and mayoral candidate, Ian Lawrence replied at a husting that he did not know which of his colleagues were or were not National Party members and nor did he care; "It [National membership] is not a criterion. The Citizens' Association of Wellington has no formal connection with the National Party."[12] In 1992, when responding to a jibe that the Citizens' Association were just "the National Party in local body drag", Citizens' president John Liddiard stated "For sure, we have National Party members but we also have people who aren't aligned to a political party."[13]
Unmistakably however, several Citizens' councillors (such as Charles Bowden, Allan Highet and Arthur Kinsella) were National MPs and many more (including Will Appleton, Ernest Toop and Michael Fowler) have stood unsuccessfully for parliament as National candidates. Between 1938 and 1966 alone there were 11 Citizens' candidates who stood as National Party candidates demonstrating a presence of joint membership, informal or otherwise.[14]
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