Wellington City wins power struggle over water votes

Tuesday, 2 December 2025

The Wellington City Council has won a power struggle over neighbouring councils and effectively tripled its voting rights in a new regional water entity.

But, in the establishment of Tiaki Wai, all councils also lose power as the organisation will have its own board with far greater autonomy than the current Wellington Water board.

Tiaki Wai, which will take over running the region’s three waters half-way through 2026, will have a partnership board. Originally, each member was to have one vote each but the Wellington City Council objected on the basis it was contributing more assets and money.

In the final wash-up, confirmed in a council agenda this week, each Wellington City vote will count for three votes, each Hutt City vote will be worth two, while single votes go to Porirua, Upper Hutt and Greater Wellington councils. Local iwi Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa would also get one vote each on some matters.

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New Zealand’s crumbling water infrastructure, of which Wellington was at the pointy end, was caused by decades of underinvestment. The Government changed the system meaning new entities could be set up with greater borrowing power and more autonomy to get work done.

In Wellington, this meant the dissolution of Wellington Water and the establishment of Tiaki Wai.

Former Wellington City councillor Tim Brown was a council representative on the Wellington Water Committee until he was replaced by then-mayor Tory Whanau. But he has maintained an interest in water and is heading up a new water users’ advocacy group.

He confirmed there had been objection from Wellington City to the one-vote-per-member plan and the change was made to give it three votes.

“We felt it was unfair Wellington gets one vote but provides about 45% of income and assets,” he said. He also confirmed the original plans were that votes needed 100% agreement to pass. Now a majority was needed.

Wellington mayor Andrew Little said getting the three votes helped ensure “better proportionality for Wellington city, based on its population and infrastructure being transferred [to the] new water entity”.

Ensuring mana whenua had a voice was consistent with the Crown's obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi, he said.

A Tiaki Wai spokesperson confirmed the new board, or Partners Committee, would have less power over day-to-day running than the current Wellington Water committee of council elected members. The Partner Committee would write a letter of expectation which would be given to a board of directors ‒ currently unelected positions ‒ to enact.

There are further voting divides within the Partners Committee. “Shareholder reserved matters” ‒ things such as selling and buying shares ‒ can only be voted on by councils. “Partner Reserved Matters” including setting the statement of expectations, also get one vote each from the two iwi.

Porirua mayor Anita Baker said the voting structure meant no single council could not solely impose its will on all. Baker, who backs council amalgamation, said current voting rights would be redundant if there was just a single council.

Hutt City mayor Ken Laban said the old system, of needing 100% agreement to pass anything, was “a bit naive”.

Council papers also show that the partners would tell Tiaki Wai to prioritise cost efficiency but work towards “price harmonisation”.

Brown said this would unfairly mean the whole region having to pay for all work. In an example he used, Wellington City residents were currently fully paying for a new sludge treatment plant. But Porirua would eventually need the same and Wellington City residents would end up chipping in under price harmonisation“.