MONIQUE FORD/Stuff
Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau confirmed she accidentally walked away from a restaurant without paying but has denied other claims.
Colleagues of Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau have come to her defence as she faces criticism for a night on the town with a friend in which she allegedly asked wait staff “do you know who I am” and left without paying a restaurant bill.
Whanau admits to accidentally leaving the Old Quarter without paying and that she was “tipsy”, but denies she had reached the stage where she should not be served alcohol and that she asked the waiter if he knew who she was.
Deputy Mayor Laurie Foon said the statements attributed to her “do not fit the person I’ve come to know”.
”Tory is a very real person who loves to enjoy what Wellington has got to offer,” Foon said.
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Councillor Rebecca Matthews said everyone, including the mayor, should be held to a high standard but “we shouldn’t expect anyone, because they are in public life, to be a complete saint all the time”.
Nobody would stand up to the kind of scrutiny faced by Whanau, Matthews said.
But Kerry Prendergast, Wellington’s mayor from 2001 to 2010 and a deputy mayor before that, on Monday said she was always conscious of how much alcohol she drank at events as “the number one citizen, always representing the city”.
“It’s a sad day for all of Wellington to get their newspaper today and see their number one citizen on the front page with an allegation as was reported,” Prendergast said on Monday.
Since The Post on Monday revealed the Friday incident, two punters at the restaurant have come forward.
One of them confirmed to NewstalkZB that the mayor asked wait staff, “do you know who I am?”. This was earlier claimed by the waiter serving the pair.
One man, who asked not to be identified, said he and his 13 and 15-year-old teenagers were sitting near Whanau and her friend and heard a lot of loud swearing: “Lots of words beginning with F.”
Monique Ford/The Post
Former Mayor Kerry Prendergast says she was always alert around alcohol in her time as mayor.
He was speaking out in defence of the restaurant’s waiter after Whanau said allegations about her conduct were “simply false”.
Multiple people approached The Post on Monday and said they spotted Whanau on Friday afternoon drinking at The Malthouse about three hours before she went to the Old Quarter.
Staff at the pub would not confirm this.
It is understood Whanau had been celebrating a big Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) win on Friday and was out at The Old Quarter with a consultant to the project.
Whanau, who campaigned as a LGWM supporter, on Thursday overcame staunch opposition to progress key elements of the $7.4 billion LGWM and also negotiated a deal to see Wellington pursue a sister city relationship with the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
Management and staff at the Old Quarter restaurant on Dixon St have confirmed the pair were “tipsy” when they arrived and staff had considered not serving them, The Post reported on Monday.
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The pair were allowed to stay because they were eating. They sat at an outside table where they ate, and drank a bottle of wine, staff said.
It is alleged that they became progressively drunker.
“She came up to me holding her bottle of wine. She said, ‘do you know who I am?’,” waiter Andrew Jenkins told The Post.
Staff were about to refuse to serve them any more alcohol but then realised they had left without paying.
