'Withered on the vine': Tiaki Wai spends as promised users' group fades
Monday, 29 June 2026
Two days out from Tiaki Wai’s first day of a $25 billion spend, a group meant to keep an eye on its spending has “withered on the vine” while full Government oversight remains undecided.
Tiaki Wai, a beefed up successor to Wellington Water, has already made waves with its spending. It was revealed on Friday it had taken on $600,000 a year in new office space to accommodate a larger workforce, while chief executive Michael Brewster’s $645,000 salary puts him ahead of the Prime Minister and mayor. The organisation plans to spend $25 billion over 30 years.
An average Wellington City home is expected to be billed $2417 by the new entity in the first year, rising to about $7114 within a decade.
The Wellington City Council, the largest shareholding council in Tiaki Wai, in August 2025 voted to provide financial support for an independent water consumer advocacy group. It would influence decision makers from the Tiaki Wai board and executive to the Commerce Commission, Taumata Arowai and others, council papers show.
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Tim Brown, the former Wellington City councillor who had lobbied hardest for the group and planned to set it up after stepping down in 2025, said last week that no real action had been taken by the council on establishing the water users’ group.
“It's withered on the vine,” he said.
“[Mayor Andrew Little] said he supported it during the election campaign but has done nothing since. Last year, responding to a request from one of his staff I sent her a summary of what it would entail but never heard back.”
Little said he had told Brown the previous council’s idea for the group “did not extend to funding it”. Funding would have cost about $1.5m for a group with no real power.
Wellingtonians elected a mayor and councillors to advocate for them and council staff were looking at setting up a group of elected members to “monitor Tiaki Wai’s performance and lead advocacy with all relevant parties”, he said. This group would cost $50,000 to $340,000 but he expected that to reduce.
Commission water regulation head Charlotte Reed on Friday – five days out from day one – said it would decide on the extra powers in August. It already had information disclosure requirements for Tiaki Wai from July 1.
“We are improving transparency, so we can all see how decisions are made and how money is spent,” Reed said
“We also want to ensure there are consequences for Tiaki Wai if it’s not delivering on its commitments.”
She previously said the risk to consumers was higher at Tiaki Wai than other regulated suppliers so oversight was needed from the start.
Little has long lobbied for Commerce Commission oversight.
“Water consumers deserve Commerce Commission regulation and hence Tiaki Wai accountability before the spending head of steam really gets up,” he said on Friday.
Brown said there were “zero merits” with having neither the Commerce Commission oversight nor advocacy group and there were pros and cons with each.
“The current [Tiaki Wai] shareholder/iwi governance structure is no better than what existed to oversee Wellington Water Limited. And we all know what happened there.”