Wellington Mayor Andy Foster denies media access to previously public city council workshop

Tuesday, 5 May 2020

Wellington Mayor Andy Foster has defended his decision to exclude media from a normally public city council briefing, saying he did not have enough time to consider the request.

Foster refused to allow media to join the council's online Zoom call on Tuesday morning because he was not advised beforehand of their intention to tune in.

The meeting was one of the council's regular 'pre-briefings' before a full public meeting two days later. It is regularly attended by the media.

Having obtained a link to the call moments before the meeting kicked off, Stuff's request to join was denied by Foster on the basis it was too late.

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Stuff had hours earlier requested access to the briefing from the council.

'As chair of this pre-council 'Q and A' session, I received the request for media attendance literally as I began the meeting,' Foster said.

'That is nobody’s fault. However … that gave me no time for discussion with councillors and management about doing so, and they clearly did express a range of views around the importance of transparency and of free and frank advice.'

The briefings are not technically meetings under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, but are considered part of the decision-making process, and it has become standard practice for them to be open to reporters.

City councillor Iona Pannett said media had had access to the briefings for more than a decade.

'There is no reason to change this practice now that we are holding meetings by Zoom. 

'In fact, in light of Covid-19, it is even more important that the public and media have access to these meetings to judge how the council is responding to this crisis.”

Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons also said excluding media was the wrong call.

'In my view, the council should welcome the public and media to council pre-briefings under lockdown in the same way we did prior [to the lockdown].

'It is an important matter of transparency and Zoom meetings offer us the technology to do this easily. 

The legality of excluding the public from the meetings was questionable considering there were no personal privacy or commercial sensitivity issues, Fitzsimons said.

Tuesday's briefing included discussion on proposed temporary street layout changes such as pop-up cycleways during coronavirus alert levels 2 and 3.

It also addressed the council's submission on the New Zealand Transport Agency's accessible streets regulatory package, and proposed roading, traffic and parking changes associated with a new convention and exhibition centre.

Victoria University of Wellington associate law professor Dr Dean Knight said it was undemocratic generally for workshops to be held behind closed doors because much of the discussion happened there.

'If all the heavy lifting is done in a workshop beforehand and decisions are then made through a formal ritual, that undermines the heart of the transparency regulations for public meetings.'

The briefings were previously held ahead of city strategy committee meetings, but under the coronavirus lockdown are being held ahead of full council meetings instead.

Foster said there had been inconsistent policy on the council's meeting protocols, and he had asked for that to be reviewed.

Media had not requested access to any other pre-briefings since the coronavirus lockdown began, Foster said.