'Kangaroo court': Mayor's explosive response to Wellington council letter

Friday, 7 March 2025

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Porirua mayor Anita Baker is pulling no punches on her neighbouring “kangaroo court” council, as it calls for the head of Wellington Water board chairperson Nick Leggett.

A week of high tension for Wellington Water started on Monday, with two report summaries landing that pointed to contractors being paid in excess of what they should.

By Thursday afternoon, the Wellington City Council – which is the utility’s biggest shareholder – was calling for a number of actions from the Wellington Water committee, including that it fire Leggett, get a refund for the overpaid money and ask the Auditor-General to investigate.

But Baker – who sits on the Wellington Water Committee, which directs the board – got wind of the letter before it was released and gave The Post an exclusive and explosive statement.

“While the other shareholders are focused on solving the problems at Wellington Water to cut out the overspend and ensure value for rates, Wellington's mayor and council are off campaigning for re-election,” she said.

“This proposed kangaroo court is a disgrace, bypassing the proper regional processes to pursue a vendetta against Wellington Water board members and deflect blame for their own part in creating this mess.”

If Wellington City Council held itself to the same standard it was applying to Leggett, there would be a “mass exodus”, she said.

The Wellington letter was missing four signatures: Diane Calvert, Nicola Young, Tony Randle and Nureddin Abdurahman.

Nicola Young said Leggett “inherited the mess” at Wellington Water and had been working with chief executive Pat Dougherty to sort it out.

“It takes time to correct all the problems at Wellington Water so we need to support them – it is outrageous that anyone should suggest Nick’s head should roll,” Young said.

“This is just transparent politicking, which is the last thing needed when the organisation is in such a fragile state.”

The letter was signed by mayor Tory Whanau and endorsed by deputy mayor Laurie Foon, pouiwi Liz Kelly and Holden Hohaia, as well as councillors Rebecca Matthews, John Apanowicz, Ray Chung, Tim Brown, Teri O’Neill, Ben McNulty, Geordie Rogers, Nīkau Wi Neera, Sarah Free and Iona Pannett.

“As it stands myself, and a majority of Wellington City councillors and pouiwi, do not have confidence in Nick Leggett as Chair of [Wellington Water] and Leanne Southey as the board member responsible for audit and risk,“ the letter said.

They called for an analysis of contracted work for unplanned maintenance, with Wellington Water seeking a “recompense on behalf of ratepayers” and a “public and proactive” call for previous staff and contractors to come forward about “poor practice and fraud”.

If the committee would not remove Leggett, it called for him, fellow committee member Leanne Southey and chief executive Pat Dougherty to front to the council with answers.

They called for the committee to find out from Leggett how he managed conflicts of interests with his dual roles – at Wellington Water and being chief executive of industry group Infrastructure NZ. If answers to these were unsatisfactory, he should be stood down pending an investigation, the letter said.

It expressed frustration that Wellington Water failed to act on a previous report - commissioned by the council more than a year ago - which found similar issues.

“The public response to the reports is one of anger and frustration. Rightly so given that millions of dollars in hard earned rate payer money has lined the pockets of contractors while our pipes have further deteriorated over recent years.”

Campbell Barry, who is both Lower Hutt mayor and chairman of the Wellington Water Committee, said it was through Leggett’s direction the “full scale of the issues” were revealed and what needed to be done to urgently fix the problems identified.

“What mayors and councillors need to do now is take a moment to fully understand the context of these reports, and what they actually mean for the delivery of water infrastructure in our region. Councils also need to assess how their own decision-making processes may have impacted value for money issues, as highlighted in the report,” he said.

Leggett had no comment, other than that he reported to a shareholder committee, which he was meeting on Monday.

Anita Baker’s full statement

While the other shareholders are focussed on solving the problems at Wellington Water to cut out the overspend and ensure value for rates, Wellington's mayor and council are off campaigning for re-election.

This proposed Kangaroo Court is a disgrace, bypassing the proper regional processes to pursue a vendetta against [Wellington Water] board members and deflect blame for their own part in creating this mess.

Fixing the crisis at Wellington Water requires serious leadership, focus on what's important, and true accountability from everyone concerned. Wellington City's proposed show trial fails on all three fronts.

When Wellington City Councillors convene a Kangaroo Court or make legal threats when the Council itself failed to provide oversight as the biggest shareholder, ask yourself: who in their right mind would put their hand up to serve on the board of a public entity?

If Wellington City Councillors were held to the same standard they're applying to Nick Leggett, there would be a mass exodus.

If we agree to the political fix proposed by WCC, we would leave Wellington Water in worse shape than it is today. They would be stranded with only two directors. Positive reforms would be stalled. Wellington City may be willing to sacrifice progress for a few headlines, but we are not.

They need to stop focussing on the wrong things and and stop with the political game playing because that's exactly how we got in this mess to begin with.

Yes, there were oversight failures by the Board but all this has only come to light because of investigations carried out by the current [chief executive] and chair who inherited these broken systems. They have already made important changes with more to come. We should be supporting them in their efforts, not attacking and threatening them which only makes it harder to make the improvements that need to be made.

They owe it to ratepayers to start acting like grown-ups. Because ratepayers understand, even if some of their representatives do not, that responsibility for the oversight failures here extends well beyond the board of Wellington Water.

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