William Raymond Wallace (born 1961) is a New Zealand politician. He served as

mayor of Lower Hutt The city of Lower Hutt, New Zealand, was first proclaimed a borough on 1 February 1891. Prior to this it had been part of Hutt County, initially as a Roads Board and from 1881 as a Town Board. Since 2019, the mayor has been Campbell Barry. List ...

from 2010 to 2019.

Biography

Early life

Wallace was born in

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

, Scotland, in 1961. He received his education at Te Aro Primary,

St Mark's Church School , motto_translation = Make your mark every day , denomination = Anglican Church of Australia , type = Private, Independent Christian school , established = , staff = 46 , address = 13 Dufferin Street , region = Basin ...

and Wellington College. He has worked in real estate, health care, and the security industry. Wallace is married and lives in Wainuiomata.

Political career

Wallace stood for the National Party in the seat of Pencarrow (which covered much of Lower Hutt) at the 1990 general election. He lost to Labour's Sonja Davies. Wallace was first elected to Hutt City Council in the Wainuiomata ward in a 1995 by-election, he served as deputy mayor from 2001 to 2004. Wallace first challenged incumbent David Ogden for the mayoralty in

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and came a close second in the three-person race. In the 2010 election, only Ogden and Wallace contested the mayoralty, and the latter won with a healthy majority. He won re-election in the 2013 local elections, achieving a significant majority over his only rival, Phil Stratford. Wallace and Stratford received 20,540 and 3,166 votes, respectively. Wallace was known for his staunch opposition to "Super Cities" in New Zealand and fought against the proposal for one to occur in Wellington. In 2016 Wallace was re-elected to the mayoralty for a third term, 17,011 votes ahead of his nearest rival, James Anderson. In June 2017 Wallace hit media headlines for his decision to retain rate payer funded meals. The motion was raised by Councillor

Campbell Barry Campbell Nicholas Barry (born 1991) is a New Zealand local-body politician. He has served as Mayor of Lower Hutt since 2019. Biography Early life Barry was educated at Wainuiomata High School. He went on to study at Victoria University of Welli ...

who believed elected members should pay for their own meals after the Council decided to introduce what he called "a sham Living Wage Policy". After a 7–6 vote, with Wallace voting in favour of retaining the meals, a public backlash engulfed the Council in controversy. Wallace was defeated for the mayoralty by Labour Party councillor

at the 2019 local elections.

Post politics

Following his mayoral defeat he entered work as a real estate agent. Ray Wallace ONZM investiture

In the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

, Wallace was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to local government and the community.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, Ray 1961 births Living people Mayors of Lower Hutt Deputy mayors of places in New Zealand Scottish emigrants to New Zealand People educated at Wellington College (New Zealand) Unsuccessful candidates in the 1990 New Zealand general election New Zealand National Party politicians People from Kirkcaldy Hutt City Councillors Hutt Valley District Health Board members Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit New Zealand justices of the peace