Nick Leggett

Nicholas Oliver Leggett (born 1979) is a former New Zealand politician and, as of 2016, 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.

Nick Leggett
4th Mayor of Porirua
In office
2010–2016
Preceded byJenny Brash
Succeeded byMike Tana
Personal details
Born
Nicholas Oliver Leggett

1979
Porirua, New Zealand
Political partyNational (2016–present)[1]
Independent (2016)
Labour (1994–2016)
Spouse(s)
Emily Pita
​
(m. 2014)​

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]

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.[3] 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.[4]

At the local-body elections in October 2010, Leggett contested the Porirua mayoralty as one of nine candidates. He was then working as a real estate agent, specialising in commercial and industrial sales.[5]

Leggett 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).[3] 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 member of the New Zealand Labour Party throughout his career in local body politics,[13] Leggett stood as an independent candidate.[14]

Campaign to be Mayor of Wellington

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 intended to seek the National candidacy for the Mana electorate in 2017.[19] Leggett later abandoned his plans to run for Parliament but stated he would still campaign for the National Party in the area.[20]

When he contested the Wellington mayoralty in 2016, Leggett moved to Johnsonville.[21]

Professional career after politics

In 2017 the Leggetts moved back to Porirua; buying a house in Papakowhai. Leggett was then a business consultant.[22]

In 2018 Leggett is the executive director of the New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council.[23]

In October 2018 Leggett was appointed the CEO of the Road Transport Forum,[24] a lobby group which promotes and the interests of the trucking road freight industry.[25]

Personal life

Nick Leggett married Emily Pita in 2014; they have a son.[26] 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.[27]

References
  1. Burr, Lloyd (30 November 2016). "Nick Leggett jumps ship to National". Retrieved 30 November 2016.
  2. "About Nick". Nick Leggett. Archived from the original on 3 June 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  3. Broun, Britton (11 October 2010). "Porirua's new mayor New Zealand's youngest". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  4. "Porirua City Council – Northern Ward". Elections2010.co.nz. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  5. Gilchrist, Jennifer (3 July 2010). "Nine contenders compete in Porirua mayoral race". Newswire.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". The 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". The 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". The Dominion Post (Wellington). 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. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  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". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 1 December 2016.
  20. Isaac Davison (10 March 2017). "Former Porirua Mayor and Labour exile Nick Leggett scraps plans to run for Parliament". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  21. 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.
  22. "Nick Leggett leaves Wellington and moves back to Porirua for property not politics". Stuff (Fairfax). 16 February 2017.
  23. "Wellington police cracking down on drinking in bowling clubs (see photo of Leggett)". Stuff (Fairfax). 20 July 2018.
  24. Moffiet, Nigel (11 October 2018). "RTF appoints Nick Leggett as CEO".
  25. "About | Road Transport Forum RTF | NZ Trucking National Body".
  26. Johnstone, Tessa (12 July 2014). "Mayor to leg-it before wedding day". The Dominion Post. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
  27. 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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