$350k-plus Crown review into Wellington sewage disaster lands late, remains under wraps
Friday, 3 July 2026
The first take of a $350,000-and-climbing ratepayer-funded Crown review into the Moa Point sewage catastrophe remains under wraps, with the four-member team already having been paid about $230,000.
Local Government Minister Simon Watts ordered the Crown review and announced his team on March 12, just over a month after the February 4 failure at the Moa Point plant flooded the facility in a metres-deep soup of sewage and rainwater.
The plant remains offline with 70 million litres of untreated wastewater discharged daily off the south coast. Saturday will mark the 150th day since disaster struck, with about 10.5 billion litres of untreated wastewater entering the sea.
The gazetted notice of the Crown review team said chairperson Raveen Jaduram would earn $1645 a day while members Helen Atkins, Garry Macdonald and Michael Weatherall would each earn $1240 a day.
Read more:
The fee has to be paid by the Wellington City Council and Wellington Water, which has been superseded by Tiaki Wai.
On Thursday the council released its costs, with Tiaki Wai saying it could not release its costs for another week. However, the payment structure laid down by the gazetted notice means the costs should be near identical to the council’s.
The four members’ expenses totalled $116,684 for the council or roughly $233,000 across the the council and utility. Other costs came in about $124,000 across the pair. The council confirmed it was not the final bill.
The interim report was due back before July 1, the day Tiaki Wai took over Wellington’s water infrastructure.
“Lessons must be identified and available to inform the establishment of Tiaki Wai,” the gazetted notice of the Crown Review teams said.
July 1 came and went on Wednesday. Wellington Water, which the Crown review is looking into, was officially removed from the Companies Register to be subsumed into Tiaki Wai.
A day later, a spokesperson from Watts’ office said the review team had finalised the interim report and it would land in Watts’ office that day.
“The minister intends for the interim report to be made public; however, no decision has yet been made regarding the timing of its release,” a spokesperson from his office said.
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter, who has had the billions of litres of sewage dumped off beaches in her electorate, said the money spent so far was a lot but she would hold judgment until she saw the report. Watts should release the interim report as soon as possible because questions were mounting about the way the plant was operated, she said.
“It’s disappointing that the report wasn’t with Tiaki Wai when they took over. That was the expectation and I think Minister Watts needs to get the panel to give us an explanation.”
Various other reviews have covered the Moa Point catastrophe. Greater Wellington Regional Council chairperson Daran Ponter could not say when his council’s investigation into potential Resource Management Act breaches would be completed.
The first report came out in March showing trapped air and a rain-drenched night caused sewage to flow the wrong way and flood the plant.
A damage report in May found the plant would cost about $53.3m to fix and take until about November to become operational again. Some work would continue until late in 2027.