Wellington councillors threatened over Shelly Bay: 'You'd both have been necklaced with a burning tyre'

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Shelly Bay, on Miramar Peninsula in Wellington, has caused all manner of strife as developers push to turn it into a $500 million development.

Police are investigating after two Māori Wellington City councillors were threatened on social media for voting in favour of the contentious Shelly Bay development.

Dr Catherine Love – from Mau Whenua, which opposes the $500 million development – took to Facebook on February 5, leading to other inflammatory comments and a subsequent complaint to police, who on Sunday confirmed an investigation had been launched.

“Jill Day and Tamatha Paul … hoki ki ō maunga [return to your mountains] and let your own people deal to you,” Love wrote, then quoted from a Mau Whenua supporter who said Day and her “gal pal councillors” were “turncoats”.

“You will fail to make yourself safe in our lands until you do right by [Shelly Bay],” the quote said.

* Cease-and-desist issued to Shelly Bay occupiers in Wellington

* Shelly Bay occupiers plan to stick it out for five years

Anaru Mepham started his Shelly Bay occupation as a one-man sentry in November. It is now a large operation.

Wellington mayor Andy Foster helped with a tent at the Shelly Bay occupation but has now spoken out against comments on social media made by occupiers and supporters.

One commenter on the post said Day and Paul – both Wellington City councillors who voted in favour of council land at Shelly Bay being sold to developers – would in the past have been “been cooked in a hangi'.

He said, if this were apartheid-era South Africa, they would have “been necklaced with a burning tire [sic] around your necks”.

Councillor Jill Day took the threatening social media posts to police.

Shelly Bay, on the western side of the Miramar peninsula, is where developer Ian Cassels plans a $500-million development that has spent years bogged down by courts, commissioners and council conflict.

Cassels bought the bulk of land there from Wellington iwi Taranaki Whānui but, after the council voted in November to sell and lease its portion of land there to Cassels, Mau Whenua began an occupation of the site that has now lasted three months.

Wellington Mayor Andy Foster, whose previous support for the occupation extended to him helping fix a wind-damaged tent at the occupation site, on Sunday said he was “deeply disturbed to see these angry and violent words”.

Catherine Love, left, Anaru Mepham and Hirini Jenkins-Mepham address Wellington City councillors before a vote on the sale of council-owned Shelly Bay land in November 2020.

“Whatever the circumstances, this is not the way we do things in New Zealand,” Foster said.

“Democracy should be based firmly on dialogue and building understanding, which I will continue to encourage.

“I do not condone this behaviour. We are better than this.”

Councillor Tamatha Paul was also named on the Facebook posts.

Day, of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, who became the first Māori woman voted to Wellington City Council in 2016, referred the comments to police late last week.

“I urge those who oppose the decisions that have already been made do to so in a respectful and calm manner, and not to resort to threats and intimidation tactics,” Day said.

“No one should ever need to fear for their safety.”

Paul (Ngāti Awa and Waikato Tainui) said of the posts: “I accept that some will disagree with my decisions, but I won’t tolerate threats.”

Love said the actions of Wellington councillors, including Day and Paul, had caused anger, hurt, and grief.

“At [historic Taranaki peaceful-resistance Māori site] Parihaka our people felt, and sometimes verbally expressed, anger, hurt, and grief, but they did not follow through with violent acts, and we take the same position.”

She was of the opinion that Day’s decision to go to police was an attempt to support the development “by pushing for council to vote to push us off the land”.

She did not condone physical violence but said Day and Paul had offended Wellington iwi’s tupuna (ancestors) and would have to face them in the afterlife.

Anaru Mepham, from the occupation site, said the fault lay with the council, the Crown, and Cassels’ The Wellington Company – all whom he said had ignored Mau Whenua – but occupiers were resolved to settle matters peacefully.

“We tried to resolve this using the appropriate channels. Legally we were denied access to a just result, because justice is a privilege of the wealthy, the dominating culture.”

Holden Hohaia, trustee for Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, the commercial arm of Taranaki Whānui, said he was “absolutely appalled” by the comments, which amounted to inciting violence.

City Council Chief Executive Barbara McKerrow said she was shown the posts and supported the decision to go to police.

“I consider this intimidation to be completely unacceptable.”