Dunedin councillor told he was 'embarrassing' himself by mayor

Tuesday, 22 February 2022

Cr Lee Vandervis was told by Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins that his line of questioning was “embarrassing himself”.

A Dunedin city councillor was told he was embarrassing himself for his line of questioning at an iwi presentation to the council.

It happened during Tuesday’s full council meeting, in which the council discussed joining Communities 4 Local Democracy, a splinter group of councils that want to create an alternative Three Waters model to the Government's proposal.

Gabrielle Huira, chief executive of Te Kura Taka Pini, Ngāi Tahu's freshwater group, said only half of the iwi’s villages were connected to drinking, storm and waste water infrastructure, and she wanted that to change.

She described it as a call for “equity of access”.

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During question time, councillor Lee Vandervis accused her of asking for “billions of dollars” of infrastructure to be given to Māori.

“Equity is defined in Wikipedia as ownership of assets,” he said, referring to the definition of a different word that is spelt the same.

Huira repeated that she said equity in access, to which multiple elected members nodded in the livestream.

Cr Lee Vandervis clashed with Ngāi Tahu’s Gabrielle Huira over the meaning of ‘equity’.

“We [iwi] do not want to own any of the infrastructure,” she said.

“That's not what you said. You're now saying equity in access … equity means ownership,” Vandervis said.

“What you have stated … is a phrase which to me makes no sense at all.”

Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins told Vandervis: “Equity of access may be a concept foreign to you, but it is broadly understood I think by people at this meeting.”

Huria said it meant they could get access to decent, healthy drinking water, “which we currently don't have in nine of the places in our takiwā (territory)”.

“I would like to sit here where I live, on a Māori reservation, and be able to drink healthy, clean water. I'd like to make sure that sewage and drain water from cities and towns don't go into the places where I gather seafood, which is what's happening now … same down in Otago.

Communities 4 Local Democracy on Parliament steps in December 2021.

“I can see councillor that you’re never going to agree.”

Vandervis said her comment was unacceptable and told her to re-watch the livestream to see what she said.

Stuff can confirm that Huira said equity of access in her presentation.

“Councillor, you're embarrassing yourself,” Hawkins said.

Later in the meeting, the council considered joining Communities 4 Local Democracy, which opposes the Government’s Three Water model.

The model would group the country's water infrastructure – currently split across 67 territorial authorities – into four separate entities, with the expectation a grouping of roughly 1 million users per entity would make it easier to fund infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.

The entities would be governed by the member councils, and would remain in public ownership but be managed by an independent board of experts.

Communities 4 Local Democracy was formed when the Government made the reform mandatory and has 27 members out of the 67 total territorial authorities.

Those councils want to continue managing the infrastructure themselves, so residents had direct influence on infrastructure decisions through elections and attending public council meetings.

The group has been criticised for saying it wants genuine Māori partnership in designing a new model, when iwi such as Ngāi Tahu say they haven’t been involved, and the group’s splintering from Local Government New Zealand showed a lack of good faith.

Joining required a financial contribution towards the campaign.

The Dunedin City Council opposed the Government’s reform, but Hawkins said joining the campaign would be akin to “signing a blank cheque” to let small councils control their advocacy efforts.

There were also concerns joining the group would damage the council’s relationship with iwi.

Not all agreed, but the vote was 8-7 in favour of joining the group.

Cr Andrew Whiley, who proposed the council join the group, said it was a “well organised group of talents”.

Cr Jules Radich said joining the group and pooling resources together would give them access to experts who could help create an alternative model to the Government's.

*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the council voted not to join Communities 4 Local Democracy. The council did vote to join the group. (Amended February 22, 2022, 7.04pm)