Airport shares sale vote leaves big question mark over Wellington representation

Tuesday, 15 October 2024

Wellington City Council debates and votes over airport sale.

As the smoke clears from the fireworks of the Wellington City Council airport shares vote, big questions remain hanging over the capital: How much say should unelected representatives have? Which services and projects will be cut? And are cuts even needed?

The council on Thursday voted nine-to-six to effectively stop the city’s planned sale of its 34% airport stake. But issue that divided the room the most was the level of influence of the two appointed mana whenua representatives.

Under the Local Government Act, they can vote on committees but not on the full council, meaning they could not directly influence Thursday’s defining vote.

All councillors and mayor Tory Whanau were asked whether legislation changes were needed to allow the two iwi – Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa – to vote on full council. Many failed to reply but one of the least enthusiastic was one of the two mana whenua appointees, Holden Hohaia of Taranaki Whānui.

Mayor Tory Whanau: Everything is now on the table for cuts but some are non-negotiable.

“I’m comfortable with the current protocol, provided councillors respect the right we have to vote at the committee stage,” he said. This would also mean no notices of motion to suspend committee delegations.

Whanau supported full voting rights and said it would be a conversation between the iwi and the public if legislation changed.

Nikau Wi Neera, Geordie Rogers, Iona Pannett, Rebecca Matthews and Ben McNulty all supported at least looking at the change.

The so-called Airport Three: Councillors Nikau Wi Neera, Ben McNulty and Nureddin Abdurahman all waded into the issue of mana whenua getting full coucnil voting rights.

Nureddin Abdurahman, who led the charge to stop the sale, said a conversation needed to be outside the “tense discussions” of the airport sale.

Of those councillors who responded, only Ray Chung and Tim Brown were against full mana whenua votes on full council.

“Allowing the iwi representatives to vote on council would undermine democracy and create unequal rights for different people,” Chung said.

Brown favoured the current arrangement, but said it relied on trust to work: “Regrettably that trust was misplaced last week.”

Councillor Sarah Free says Standard & Poors needs to see the council being financially prudent.

Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said the Government’s position was clear ‒ those making decisions around a council governing body must be elected democratically.

Meanwhile, council staff warned that a no-sale of the shares would mean the council having to find between $400m to $600m in cuts. This was in sharp contrast to earlier council documents, which said there would be no financial impact.

Whanau told Newstalk ZB on Monday everything was on the table to table for potential cuts. But for her there were three “non-negotiables”: The $139.4m Golden Mile project, co-funded by NZTA Waka Kotahi, retaining social housing and spending $1.8 billion over the coming decade on water infrastructure.

While they were non-negotiable for her, she confirmed she could be outvoted on each by the council.

Councillor Sarah Free, who is pro sale, confirmed that with the airport money going to set up a fund then and held until needed after a disaster, it was never going to be used to pay for projects such as the Golden Mile or water.

But the fund gave the council financial headroom after a disaster and the “financial where with all to rapidly respond”. It was also about showing credit rating agency Standard & Poors that the council was being financially prudent as another credit rating drop would increase borrowing costs.

But Abdurahman said, with council advice swinging from saying a no-sale would have no financial impact to up to $600m, the council needed to show its working.

“We’ve been asking for the modelling for a long time,” he said. He believed the latest council figures were inflated.