Why league legend Ken Laban wants to be Lower Hutt's first Pasifika mayor

The Spinoff

3 days ago

His family is world famous in Wainuiomata, so it was only fitting that Ken Laban launched his mayoral campaign there, at the marae across the road from his beloved league club. Lyric Waiwiri-Smith headed along.
It's all go at Wainuiomata Marae an hour before the launch of Ken Laban's mayoral campaign. The 68-year-old former league star and regional councillor is known around these hallways simply as 'uncle', and when we sit down in a corner to speak, the sounds of footsteps pattering through the wharekai, drumming on pātē and laughter from rangatahi almost drown out our conversation. There's plenty of momentum behind the grassroots campaign to elect Lower Hutt's first Pasifika mayor – but when you're already a local legend, that's to be expected.
If you grew up in the mighty 'Nui, you're probably already familiar with the Laban family name – few whānau have been as foundational to the commuter town northeast of Wellington. Technically a large suburb of Lower Hutt, it has seen a housing boom in recent years. One of the first Pasifika aiga to settle in Wainuiomata, Laban's father and mother were public servants in Samoa's parliament before transferring to government jobs in Wellington in 1954, raising Ken and his older sister Winnie (who would go on to become the first Pasifika woman elected to Aotearoa's parliament) in the family home the Labans still live in today.
The Labans regard this marae as their own, having naturally blended in with local Māori in the suburb (such as the whānau of rugby star Piri Weepu). Ken Laban's father, Ken Snr, was a member of the committee that opened Wainuiomata Marae in the 1970s, and across the road is the stomping grounds of the Wainuiomata Lions, where the mayoral candidate cut his teeth as both a celebrated rugby league player and coach, mentoring generations of future athletes and community leaders on and off the field with advice like 'you can't be a winner on Saturday if you're a loser the rest of the week'.
This isn't Laban's first time running for Lower Hutt mayor, having stood in the 2007 race against incumbent David Ogden and then-councillor Ray Wallace, the latter of whom would go on to hold the mayoralty between 2010 and 2019. Once a police officer and then a Sky Sports commentator (he played a pivotal role in bringing First XV rugby games to the broadcaster), Laban became a Hutt City councillor in 2010 before being elected to Wellington Regional Council in 2013, a post he has held since.
Laban's one of those older gentlemen who seems to have lived a thousand lives, telling The Spinoff that wrangling a bunch of under-15 league players can't be much harder than taking control of the council table. Going up against current councillors Brady Dyer and Karen Morgan, as well as new candidate Prabha Ravi, he says he's a 'back to basics' kind of guy, who would demand a line-by-line review of the council's budget to ensure core services such as roads, water and infrastructure are up to standard in the Hutt if he was elected. A supporter of the Melling interchange and Riverlink projects, Laban says improving the access ways and roads will be key to ensuring Lower Hutt is a 'progressive, world-class city' – but a second entrance/exit for Wainuiomata is still on the nice-to-have list at this point.
To boost the city's economy, Laban would like to see the Hutt become more events-focused, hopefully turning it into a regional tourism destination. More visitors in the Hutt and more bums on seats in bars and restaurants will be key to helping the city dream a little more about what it could provide, he reckons. You might turn your nose up at the thought of Lower Hutt being a destination city, but it's not impossible: Six60 once sold out the Hutt Recreation Ground, after all.
Most importantly, Laban says he wants to lead a council that properly reflects the community it serves, and in Lower Hutt, that looks like an ageing population with some 16,000 people over the age of 65 in an overall population of 113,400. 'The majority of people don't give rates a second thought, but – applying the 80/20 rule – for 20% of the population on a fixed income, they have a very different view,' Laban says. 'We need a team to make a difference for the good of all citizens, not just the people who have the money to pay attention.'
The idea of a city having its first Pasifika mayor in the year 2025 might bring to mind a smaller-than-average Pacific community, but this isn't the case. According to the 2023 census, there is a larger population chunk of Māori living in Lower Hutt than in the Waikato, while 18.6% of locals identify as Asian, and 12.2% as Pasifika (higher than the national average of 8.9%) . 'Diversity of thought is very important,' Laban says. 'We have to have governing bodies that look like the communities they represent.'
However, Laban's not particularly concerned with the title of 'first Pasifika mayor' – rather, he'd just like to be a 'good' mayor. 'None of us can change our life experiences, and you can't unring the bell,' he says. 'My background is my background, and hopefully it'll add something significant.'
You could argue the significance is already being felt. Some 300 locals from across the Wellington region showed up to Laban's campaign launch on a Sunday evening, with a strong Labour Party presence including MPs Barbara Edmonds, Ginny Andersen and Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, as well as current Lower Hutt mayor Campbell Barry, who is not seeking re-election, and Wellington mayor Tory Whanau, who told The Spinoff she was 'pleased' to see Laban, a 'man of the community', running for the top job.
The first speaker at the night, Winnie Laban, reflected on the family's roots in the Hutt, and that time her younger brother punched someone on the school grounds for using a racist slur against her. His conflict resolution skills have since improved, she joked, but he had continued to 'stick up and stand by people in need of support', living his life by the Samoan proverb 'o le alai le pule o le tautua' – the path to authority is through service.
'Ken is a coach and team player,' his sister said. 'He always encourages young people to participate in sport, get a good education, get a job, own a business, and be proud of your culture, your language and community.'
One of his mentees was Hutt City councillor Josh Briggs, who told attendees that Laban's 'decades of governance experience' on sporting bodies and council tables had made him both a strong chair and collaborator, who was focused on providing equitable outcomes and accountability. Briggs emphasised the support Laban had offered to young Māori and Pasifika over the years: 'When I first stood for public office, Ken was one of the first to come and support me, give me advice, and ask the hard questions … Not only did he push me through the door, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me and walked through [it].'