{"id":568224,"date":"2026-08-13T22:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T22:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568224\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T22:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T22:36:11","slug":"tony-randles-family-pay-tribute-to-clever-and-caring-wellington-city-councillor-after-unexpected-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568224\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Randle\u2019s family pay tribute to clever and caring Wellington City Councillor after unexpected death"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s just a loss, such a loss,\u201d Randle\u2019s younger sister Sher said.<\/p>\n

\"TonyTony Randle pictured during the council\u2019s first meeting of the term in November 2025. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

She said the family had been honoured to see the outpouring of tributes from community members, media figures, and politicians across the aisle.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the one that helped keep the family together and communicated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that we remember the good things and try and emulate what he does and carry on really.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a type of politician that focused on the facts and the numbers and didn\u2019t get into personal issues or calling people names or character assassinations, which is a shame that we\u2019ve lost him from politics to be fair, we need more of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Randle was admitted to hospital with stomach pains on Friday and was expected to be discharged, but suffered heart-related complications and died on Sunday, his sister said. <\/p>\n

His death has been referred to the coroner.<\/p>\n

In a further statement, his family said they were \u201cdevastated\u201d, describing Randle as \u201cvery committed to the Wellington community, especially the Northern suburbs, where he lived for more than 30 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the council chamber, Randle\u2019s blazer hangs over his empty seat, with flowers, a framed photo and his calculator placed beside his nameplate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is going to leave a real hole in presence around this table for time to come,\u201d Deputy Mayor and fellow Northern Ward councillor Ben McNulty said at the council\u2019s first briefing on Tuesday since Randle\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe business of a city doesn\u2019t stop, even with the loss of one of us around this table, I\u2019m grappling with that a little bit, I\u2019m sure everyone else is as well, but knowing Tony I\u2019m also sure he would expect us to continue,\u201d McNulty said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTony was a colleague, he was a friend, and we\u2019re going to miss him dearly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"FlowersFlowers and tributes on the council table at the empty seat of Wellington City Councillor Tony Randle. A by-election for his seat will be held later this year. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Randle\u2019s death means a byelection for his Northern Ward seat.<\/p>\n

A Wellington City Council spokesman said plans for a byelection would be announced in the coming weeks, but it is required to be held before the end of the year.<\/p>\n

A memorial service for Randle is being held at 1pm this Saturday, August 15, at Wellington\u2019s T\u0101kina convention centre.<\/p>\n

In lieu of flowers, the family has asked people consider donating to the Johnsonville Trust in Tony\u2019s name, as an organisation he \u201ccared deeply about\u201d, that provides community grants to individuals and groups in the Northern suburbs.<\/p>\n

Ethan Manera<\/a> is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s just a loss, such a loss,\u201d Randle\u2019s younger sister Sher said. Tony Randle pictured during the council\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[74,95,31468,32530,2199,96081,38290,634,40869,33452,2109,2209,12632,305,10109,111,43,139,69,10142,2744,202541,202542,22639,61,11554,20838,30645,52],"class_list":["post-568224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-after","tag-and","tag-brother","tag-caring","tag-city","tag-clever","tag-councillor","tag-death","tag-dedicated","tag-devastated","tag-family","tag-father","tag-friend","tag-have","tag-husband","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-paid","tag-pay","tag-randle","tag-randles","tag-son","tag-to","tag-tony","tag-tribute","tag-unexpected","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}