Andrew John Whitfield Foster (born 21 December 1961) is a New Zealand politician who served as

Mayor of Wellington The Mayor of Wellington is the head of the municipal government of the City of Wellington. The mayor presides over the Wellington City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the Single Transferable Vote method of proportional representati ...

from 2019 to 2022. Foster served on the

Wellington City Council Wellington City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the country's capital city Wellington, and ''de facto'' second-largest city (if the commonly considered parts of Wellington, the Upper Hutt, Porirua, Lower Hutt and ...

for nine terms from 1992 until 2019.

Biography

Early life

Foster was born on 21 December 1961 in

Pembury Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of 6,128 at the 2011 Census. It lies just to the north-east of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, and moved with his family to New Zealand aged 5, originally settling in the Wellington suburbs of Ngaio and Khandallah before becoming a long-term Karori resident. He became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1978. Foster later studied at

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

, gaining a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in history and economic history and a

Bachelor of Commerce A Bachelor of Commerce (abbreviated BComm or BCom; also, ''baccalaureates commercii'') is an undergraduate degree in business, usually awarded in Canada, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Ireland, New Zealand, Ghana, South Africa, Myanmar, ...

in business management.

Political career

Local body politics

In the late 1980s Foster became politically active and joined the National Party and worked as a parliamentary researcher for National for three years. When party colleagues were looking for people to stand in local government, Foster accepted nomination and stood for election in the 1992 local elections for the

on a Citizens' ticket. He was successful winning a seat from the Western Ward. Citizens did not operate as a ticket post-election. He held a seat in the Western Ward until 2004 when local electoral boundaries were re-drawn and he stood for the newly created Onslow-Western Ward and held a seat from there until 2019. Foster stood as an independent in the

1996 New Zealand general election The 1996 New Zealand general election was held on 12 October 1996 to determine the composition of the 45th New Zealand Parliament. It was notable for being the first election to be held under the new mixed-member proportional (MMP) electoral sy ...

for . Foster stood for

on four occasions; first in

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, coming fourth, then in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

placing fifth. Foster announced his third campaign for the mayoralty at the 2019 local elections and gained endorsement from Sir

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...

. In a surprise, he narrowly beat the one-term incumbent, Justin Lester, by 62 votes after special and last-minute votes had been counted. Lester became the first Wellington mayor in 33 years to be replaced after just one term. Foster is the president of TRAFINZ, which represents local authority views in New Zealand regarding road safety and traffic management. As a city councillor he was appointed to the boards of council-owned companies Capital Power (1991-1992),

Wellington International Airport Wellington International Airport (formerly known as Rongotai Airport) is an international airport located in the suburb of Rongotai in Wellington. It lies 3 NM or 5.5 km south-east from the city centre. It is a hub for Air New Zealand an ...

from 1996 to 1998, and Wellington Water's predecessor Capacity Infrastructure (2004-2014).

Mayor of Wellington, 2019–2022

Significant policies undertaken in his tenure included the funding of the climate change "Te Atakura – First to Zero" action plan and the announcement of preferred options for the Let's get Wellington Moving transport infrastructure package. This included a second

Mount Victoria Tunnel The Mount Victoria Tunnel in the New Zealand capital city of Wellington is 623 metres (slightly more than a third of a mile) long and 5 metres (16.4 ft) in height, connecting Hataitai to the centre of Wellington and the suburb of Mount Vi ...

and a mass transit route from the

Wellington railway station Wellington railway station, or Wellington Central station, is the main railway station serving Wellington, New Zealand, and is the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Line. The station opened in ...

via the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve (commonly known as "The Basin") is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It has been used for Test matches, and is the main home ground for the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only cricke ...

to Newtown and Island Bay. In April 2021, local mana whenua iwi Ngati Toa Rangatira and Taranaki Whanui were invited to have a representative with voting rights at council committee meetings. On 30 April 2022, a new strategic partnership was signed with local Iwi at Pipitea Marae. In July 2021, Foster received acclaim from colleagues typically referenced as his political adversaries for his decision to light up the exterior of the council-owned Michael Fowler Centre with the colours of the

transgender flag The first transgender flag is a pride flag having five horizontal stripes of three colors—light blue, pink and white. It was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms in 1999 to represent the transgender community, organizations, and indi ...

following confirmation a group considered by some to be transgender-exclusionary would speak there. In addition, Foster attended a counter-rally with Labour Party councilors Fleur Fitzsimons and Teri O'Neill, draped in the transgender flag. In October 2021, Foster expressed disagreement with the Sixth Labour Government's

Three Waters reform programme The Water Services Reform Programme (formerly known as Three Waters) is a public infrastructure restructuring programme launched by the Sixth Labour Government to centralise the management of water supply and sanitation in New Zealand. It orig ...

, which proposes transferring the management of

water utilities The water industry provides drinking water and wastewater services (including sewage treatment) to residential, commercial, and industrial sectors of the economy. Typically public utilities operate water supply networks. The water industry does ...

from local councils to four new entities. In October 2022, Foster became the second person in 36 years to hold the Wellington mayoralty for just one term. Votors selected

Tory Whanau Tory Awatere Whanau (born 1983) is a New Zealand politician. She was elected mayor of Wellington at the 2022 election. Previously she served as the parliamentary chief of staff for the Green Party. Whanau is the first person of Māori descen ...

to replace him, with her gaining over twice as many votes after seven rounds of preferences.

Other political activities

Foster has been involved with the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary Trust, Karori Sports Club, and the Karori Brooklyn Community Trust. Foster is a self described "Bluegreen", a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

environmentalist. In the lead up to the general election Foster contemplated standing for Parliament as a candidate for New Zealand First. On 15 August 2017 he was confirmed as the New Zealand First candidate for the electorate. He was placed 18 on the party's list.

References

External links

Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Andy 1961 births Living people People from Pembury English emigrants to New Zealand Naturalised citizens of New Zealand Victoria University of Wellington alumni Wellington City Councillors Mayors of Wellington New Zealand National Party politicians New Zealand First politicians Unsuccessful candidates in the 2017 New Zealand general election People from Wellington City Unsuccessful candidates in the 1996 New Zealand general election