Business boss latest to pillory ‘lame-o’ councils

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

Wellington’s Chamber of Commerce has come out swinging against the regions’ beleaguered councils with another stinging criticism of their failure to strike a regional deal.

The chamber is the latest in a line-up of detractors and follows Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s description of the council’s inaction as “pretty lame-o”.

Councils were invited to submit plans by February 28 to potentially unlock 10-year agreements to unlock funding tools for new infrastructure.

Eighteen regions did so, Wellington was not among them. Five regions will be selected in May to put forward high-level proposals.

“Aucklanders will be astounded Wellington can’t work together on this,” chamber boss Simon Arcus said, alluding to Auckland mayor Wayne Brown’s regular sniping at the capital’s bureaucrats.

It was disappointing the opportunity to help tackle the region’s needs was allowed to slip through the city’s fingers and proved the need for amalgamation, Arcus said.

“Wellingtonians all face similar issues, regardless of where they live. Problems with infrastructure, water and rates can’t be tackled in isolation.

“There are real benefits to scale, and it’s clear the current model isn’t working.”

The chamber had been in touch with the Wellington City Council to encourage a focus on city-regional deals, and to offer assistance, he said, adding its failure to act meant projects that might have unlocked additional funding will either not be done or be fully paid for by ratepayers.

Arcus said it was crucial Wellington’s councils co-operate more closely on water reform.

“Councils are quickly running out of time to design a new water entity that meets the Government’s plans for Local Water Done Well. An amalgamated council would help tremendously. This should be the wakeup call our region needs,” he said.

Meanwhile the Wellington Regional Leadership Committee said it was a choice not to apply for one of the Government's regional deals, and was working on a more comprehensive proposal which would help the region deal with significant population growth, ageing infrastructure, climate change and diversifying industry.

Wellington-based senior ministers Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop have characterised the failure as “embarrassing” and an example of the councils’ dysfunction, while Opposition leader Chris Hipkins, whose Remutaka electorate straddles Upper Hutt city and parts of Lower Hutt, said the councils needed to get their act together.