Mayor puts ‘transformational change’ ahead of re-election

In a single day this week, Wellington mayor Tory Whanau’s inbox included one man calling her a “drunk hypocrite”, another calling her “the laziest mayor in welly history,” and another calling her “an alcoholic maori supremacist with no grasp on reality”.
That’s just another day, and not even a particularly bad one, for Whanau and other New Zealand women leaders. Studies have found abuse in central and local government has risen to “extremely high” levels, especially since Covid-19 and on social media. They’re more likely than men to experience gendered abuse, sexualised comments, threats to their family, and threats of sexual violence and death.