Fate of airport shares to be sealed today

Thursday, 27 June 2024

The final decision on selling the Wellington City Council’s airport shares is set down for Thursday, but Wednesday's meeting showed the deep personal tensions between the Labour and Green councillors.

Drama over the decision to sell the airport shares is entering its final stages.

Today we will learn whether the Wellington City Council has managed to vote through its ten-year budget, complete with the sale of the airport shares to establish an investment fund which could be used to fund a natural disaster response.

The vote is likely to be unusually close, with at least seven of the sixteen councillors committed to voting against the plan.

Introducing the plan at a committee meeting yesterday, Mayor Tory Whanau talked about “tough decisions” facing the council but did not mention the airport, instead choosing to focus her speech around the $1.8 billion investment in water infrastructure.

But the airport was at the centre of the meeting for most councillors, especially the self-described “Airport Three” who are determined to stop the sale.

Nureddin Abdurahman, Ben McNulty, and Nīkau Wi Neera were pushing to reverse a committee decision to sell the airport shares, but faced procedural hurdles.

Wellington Airport was at the centre of yesterday’s meeting for most councillors, especially the self-described “Airport Three” who are determined to stop the sale.

On Wednesday their motions to revoke the sale were ruled out of order by long-term plan committee chairperson Rebecca Matthews.

“I personally feel it was a shame that we couldn't have the airport conversation once again, just based on some different feelings and information and political environments that have emerged in the past week or two,” said Wi Neera.

Because they could not remove the sale from the plan, they now intended to vote against the entire budget in today’s council meeting, and would keep up the fight for the rest of the council term.

Councillor Nureddin Abdurahman describes the process as “grubby and undemocratic”.

“The process has been grubby and undemocratic,” said Abdurahman. “We promised our community we’re not selling strategic assets … Promising something to the community, to go around and do something else, is why the community is losing trust in this council.”

But the three are facing pushback from their own colleagues in the Labour and Green parties, and it looked unlikely that they could drum up the two votes needed to stop the plan.

For Labour councillors, a vote to sell the shares is against the party manifesto. Labour Party executives met in Wellington on Tuesday night to discuss the matter.

The Post understands there was a 10 to 6 vote saying Labour councillors should vote against the entire long-term plan if the share sale remained a part of it. But party general secretary Rob Salmond afterwards told the executive that their vote was unenforceable under Labour rules.

If the “Airport Three” could rely on the votes of Labour colleagues Teri O’Neill and Rebecca Matthews, they would have the numbers to tank the council’s entire ten-year plan until the sale of the airport shares were removed.

Councillors have been advised this would delay the plan until September or later, possibly leaving the council in breach of its obligation to set a budget.

Councillor Teri O’Neill believes the Government is watching and will send in commissioners if the council doesn’t pass its long-term plan.

O’Neill said it was clear to her that the Government was watching the left-wing Wellington City Council and a vote against the long-term plan would lead straight to the appointment of commissioners to replace the council or Crown observers.

“Gore Council is incredibly dysfunctional, but they can still pass a long-term plan and avoid ministerial intervention,” she said.

Matthews, who chaired the long-term plan committee, said that while she personally opposed the sale of the shares, the committee had made up its mind.

“These decisions are democratic because they are a result of our votes around the table. Whether you voted for them or not, we are all here to represent our communities. and we have acted accordingly, and this is the result,” she said.

Green councillors Laurie Foon and Geordie Rogers both made speeches on Wednesday emphasising that they believed it would be damaging to vote against the long-term plan.

Foon was interrupted halfway through her speech with a point of order from her Green colleague Wi Neera, who criticised her for reading her notes.

“Some of you are planning to vote against this LTP which means you are voting against these plans that many of you care deeply about, which will put them all at risk through external intervention of this council,” Foon said.

“Why would you do that? I can only assume that you want to make a point to keep up a fight on the airport decision –”

“Right, point of order, members are not to read speeches,” interjected Wi Neera. The point of order was not upheld, with Matthews saying she would allow note-reading from any councillor.

Geordie Rogers, who did oppose the sale of the airport shares, defended council staff and said he had never felt threatened by the secret meeting where they provided advice regarding possible personal liability for councillors.

“I think, on reflection, the time to propose amendments to the airport sale or alternatives was in November. The time to hear people's opinions was in April. The time to decide on the sale of the airport is in December. And the time to pass a working long term plan for working people is today.”