‘Schemozzle’: Govt seeks advice on Wellington council intervention
Tuesday, 15 October 2024
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown is seeking advice about what options there are for intervention with Wellington City Council.
“I’m seeking advice in terms of the situation. I’m very concerned about the impact that the council re-litigating its long-term plan may have on ratepayers who are already facing one of the highest rates in the country here in Wellington,” Brown said in Parliament on Tuesday.
Pressed on whether he would seek an early local body election in Wellington - one of his powers under the Local Government Act - he would say only that he was seeking advice and that he had done that formally on Monday.
He was unwilling to say when he would make any decisions about any intervention.
Government intervention can also take several other forms, from an independent facilitator overseeing decisions, a Crown observer stepping in to assist, monitor and make recommendations, down to the most extreme - appointing a commissioner to take over the running of the council.
The spotlight has come on the already fractured council after it voted nine-to-six last week to effectively stop the city’s planned sale of its 34% airport stake.
“Ultimately, the question is, you know, there's a threshold that has to be met in terms of any potential interventions,” he said earlier on Tuesday.
“I think it looks very untidy, the whole situation in terms of the relitigating the entire long term plan, which has already been out there.”
While he would not comment on specifics or a time line, Brown said there was a range of options available under the Local Government Act.
“It’s a high bar for any intervention. They are the democratically elected council. They are voted by Wellington ratepayers to make decisions. So any intervention is a high bar.”
“We’re pretty concerned about it,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Newstalk ZB on Tuesday morning.
“It doesn’t look great.”
The council’s long term plan looked to be at risk, Luxon said.
“It’s something we’re monitoring really closely. I know [Local Government Minister] Simeon Brown, in particular, is all over it and will continue to monitor it,” Luxon said.
“And if we have to make an intervention, you know, we will.”
That followed comments from Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Monday that she was concerned the council was sending its long-term plan back to the drawing board, calling the situation a “shambles”.
Housing Minister Chris Bishop, also MP for Hutt South and long time Wellingtonian, said the council’s state of affairs was a “shemozzle, is the best description of it, and I think Wellingtonians are pretty concerned about it, and I know Simeon Brown’s having a look at it.
“I think it's pretty obvious to Wellingtonians what's been happening, you've got councillors fighting amongst themselves, you've got an inability for the council to agree on almost anything, even pass a functional, long term plan.'
But Labour’s Wellington issues spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said she hadn’t heard a case for intervention made out by the Government.
“I have heard a lot of blaming of the city council for the economic situation that is directly the result of the Government’s public service cuts…I think the Government wants to distract attention from the fact that multiple businesses have closed in the city as a result of public service cuts directed by Nicola Willis.
“It seems to me that the Government is trying to distract from the situation it has created in Wellington.”
Taxpayers’ Union policy and public affairs manager James Ross said replacing elected leaders with commissioners “isn’t some magic solution”.
“When commissioners stepped into Tauranga, the city carried on sliding into ruin,” Ross said.
“There’s a ready-made solution for getting rid of incompetent representatives: voting. The real problem is voters are only allowed a voice once every three years.”
The council had called the extraordinary meeting last week for consideration of councillor Nureddin Abdurahman’s notice of motion, aimed at killing the sale of the council’s 34% stake in Wellington Airport voted on in May.
The sale has faced staunch opposition from many on the left, opposed to asset sales, and right-leaning councillors who don’t trust the council will save the money for its intended purpose
The airport share sale was to get money to set up a fund to help the city rebuild after a big disaster.
Council staff had warned that the council’s entire 10-year plan was based on the assumption of the sale, a no-sale would mean a lot of the planned spending would have to go back for public consultation, and not selling could affect the council’s credit rating.