Two more Genter altercations

Stuff reports:

Another allegation has come to light against Green MP Julie Anne Genter, with a business owner claiming the MP, who is working from home after an incident this week in Parliament, grabbed her arm “and gave it quite a strong shake” as they spoke.

Wellington business owner Nicola Cranfield said she saw Genter at Midlands Park at the end of last year.

“I didn’t know if it was her, so I said, ‘excuse me, are you Julie Anne Genter?’

“I was really curious to know about the letter that she had originally written to [former mayor] Justin Lester and I’ve never been able to get any clarification on it. And I thought, ‘Oh, this is a great opportunity’.

“I asked her about it and she immediately got really, really defensive and quite… She definitely blocked me and didn’t want to talk about it.

“I also said to her, ‘you might not realise but I’ve got a retail store just there and I just don’t think it would be viable if [the Golden Mile] goes ahead.’

Cranfield, who has run the Cranfields homewear store on Johnstone St for 25 years, is closing this year after 33 years of business in Wellington, citing uncertainty over the Golden Mile project.

“I thought maybe she doesn’t hear stories on the ground. Maybe everything’s filtered through and that could be useful information for her and that was when she grabbed my arm and gave it quite a strong shake.”

Cranfield said she was quite “quite surprised that she grabbed my arm”, and said it felt “really inappropriate”.

“I was so shocked… I was just like, ‘oh, that’s next-level to be grabbed by a politician.

So that is No 3.

Simon Woolf, formerly a Wellington city councillor, now with the Greater Wellington Regional Council, alleged an incident in 2019 where he was photographing an event, in a personal business capacity, outside Parliament. Genter was attending as associate transport minister. Just a few months earlier Lets Get Wellington Moving had been launched, sparking heated debate about cycleways and mass rapid transit.

Woolf said Genter “came right up to my face and complained bitterly about the slow progress with the city council and the cycleway implementation. I had to tell her three times that I wasn’t there as a councillor, I had two cameras around my neck, and that I was there as a photographer”.

And No 4.

So we have allegations of:

1. Losing her cool in Parliament and storming across the House to shut at an MP opposite
2. Losing her cool at a small business owner in her electorate on the issue of cycleways, and filming her
3. Grabbing the arm of another small business owner who wanted to talK to her about the Golden Mile project
4. Haranguing a City Councillor who was attending an event in his capacity as a photographer

I don’t think it is unfair to conclude she seems to have anger issues.

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