Nick Leggett

Nick Leggett
4th Mayor of Porirua
In office
2010–2016
Preceded by Jenny Brash
Succeeded by Mike Tana
Personal details
Born Nicholas Oliver Leggett
1979
Porirua, New Zealand
Political party National (2016-present)[1]
Independent (2016)
Labour (1994-2016)
Spouse(s) Emily Pita (m. 2014)

Nicholas Oliver "Nick" Leggett (born 1979) is a New Zealand politician and a member of the New Zealand National Party. He was the previous Mayor of Porirua, and at the time of his election in October 2010, he was the youngest mayor in New Zealand.

Early life

Leggett was born in Porirua City in 1979 and grew up in Whitby, Plimmerton, Papakowhai, and Paremata. He was educated at Paremata School and Tawa College, and then studied at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with a BA in political science.[2]

Professional life

Leggett worked as a real estate agent, specialising in commercial and industrial sales.[3]

Local-body politics

Leggett was first elected to Porirua City Council as a councillor in 1998, when he was 19. He wanted to achieve better representation of younger people on council, as 75 per cent of the population were under 45 but nobody on council was.[4] He was re-elected in 2001, but did not stand for election in 2004.[2] In 2007, he was elected in the Porirua Northern Ward, coming second.[5]

At the local-body elections in October 2010, Leggett contested the Porirua mayoralty as one of nine candidates. He was endorsed by the outgoing mayor of 12 years, Jenny Brash, as well as former mayor, John Burke.[6][7] Leggett was successful with 5930 votes, his closest rival, incumbent deputy mayor Litea Ah Hoi, receiving 2973 votes.[8] When he was elected, he became the youngest mayor in New Zealand at the time (although there have been younger mayors, including Norman Kirk, who was 30 when elected mayor of Kaiapoi in 1953).[4] Leggett was re-elected Porirua mayor in 2013 with 9252 votes (76%).[9]

Leggett served on the Porirua Community Trust from 2004 to 2007 and 2010 to 2013.[10] In 2013, he was elected a member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board.[11] Leggett enjoyed high approval ratings during his two terms as Porirua Mayor.[12]

Although a long time member of the New Zealand Labour Party,[13] Leggett has always stood as an independent candidate for local government.[14] In April 2016, he resigned from the Labour Party to run for Mayor of Wellington as an independent; Justin Lester had already been selected as the official Labour candidate and it is against party rules for members to compete against officially endorsed candidates.[15] Central to his launch campaign speech was a desire to put an end to the "bickering" and "palace politics" holding the Wellington City Council back and to facilitate a new Sports Museum and Virtual Reality Centre for Wellington.[16] In August 2016, Labour Leader Andrew Little accused Leggett of being a "right-winger", alleging that his campaign manager for the Wellington Mayoral election was a well-known ACT Party figure.[17] Leggett came second in the mayoral race, finishing about 6,000 votes behind Lester.[18] Leggett then changed allegiance to the National Party later that year citing ideological differences with Labour's leadership and announced he intends to seek the National candidacy for the Mana electorate in 2017.[19]

Personal life

Nick Leggett currently lives in Johnsonville[20] and is married to Emily Pita; they married in 2014. They have a son, Tane.[21] In early 2011, Leggett underwent a lap band operation to combat issues surrounding obesity, and he subsequently reduced his weight from 110 kg to 79 kg.[22]

References

  1. ↑ Burr, Lloyd (30 November 2016). "Nick Leggett jumps ship to National". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  2. 1 2 "About Nick". Nick Leggett. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  3. ↑ Gilchrist, Jennifer (3 July 2010). "Nine contenders compete in Porirua mayoral race". Newswire.co.nz. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  4. 1 2 Broun, Britton (11 October 2010). "Porirua's new mayor New Zealand's youngest". Dominion Post. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "Porirua City Council – Northern Ward". Elections2010.co.nz. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  6. ↑ "Open race for mayoralty of Porirua". Radio NZ. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  7. ↑ "New mayor for Porirua". Radio NZ. 10 October 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  8. ↑ "Porirua City Mayor". Elections 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  9. ↑ McBride, Kerry (12 October 2013). "Leggett wins Porirua race". Dominion Post. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  10. ↑ "Porirua Community Trust Ward 1". Elections NZ. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  11. ↑ McBride, Kerry (14 October 2013). "Porirua's Leggett wins spot on CCDHB". Dominion Post. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  12. ↑ Kris Dando (17 March 2015). "Porirua City councillors: The good, the bad, the strugglers". DomPost. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  13. ↑ Kris Dando (23 September 2014). "Leggett as Labour president?". Stuff. Retrieved 12 June 2016. Leggett, a well-known Labour supporter and campaigner
  14. ↑ David Cohen (15 January 2013). "The Listener Interview: Mayor Nick Leggett". Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  15. ↑ Talia Shadwell and Tommy Livingston (10 April 2016). "Capital 'stalled at the lights', says Nick Leggett as he launches mayoralty bid". Dominion Post. Retrieved 12 June 2016. Leggett will stand as an independent after resigning from the Labour Party
  16. ↑ "Nick Leggett wants sports museum and 'virtual reality complex' in Wellington". Stuff.co.nz. 2016-07-06. Retrieved 2016-07-24.
  17. ↑ "Labour leader Andrew Little bans MPs from attending 'right-wingers' mayoral forum". nzherald.co.nz. 9 August 2016. Retrieved 9 August 2016.
  18. ↑ Forbes, Michael (8 October 2016). "Justin Lester elected new mayor of Wellington". Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  19. ↑ Rachel Smalley (1 December 2016). "Labour Moving Too Far Left for Leggett". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  20. ↑ Tom Hunt (3 June 2016). "Porirua's Mayor ups sticks to contest for Wellington". Dompost. Retrieved 12 June 2016. Wellington mayoral candidate Nick Leggett is moving house pictured here at his new house in Johnsonville with wife Emily Leggett.
  21. ↑ Johnstone, Tessa (12 July 2014). "Mayor to leg-it before wedding day". Dominion Post. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  22. ↑ Awarau, Aroha (23 August 2013). "Mayor Nick Legget loses 30kg and gains love". New Zealand Woman's Weekly. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
Political offices
Preceded by
Jenny Brash		 Mayor of Porirua
2010–2016 		Succeeded by
Mike Tana
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