Call for Wellington Water chairman Nick Leggett to be fired

Friday, 7 March 2025

The Wellington City Council is officially calling for Wellington Water chairperson Nick Leggett to resign and for ratepayers to get a refund from overpaid contractors.

Reports released Monday laid bare how the city was stung for repairing and maintaining water pipes, with the unplanned spending per kilometre trebling between 2017 to 2022.

The reports found multiple areas where the ratepayer-funded utility had overpaid compared with “peer councils” with one area – unplanned water maintenance – triple that of other places. Wellington Water and Civil Contractors NZ say this reflects that more work was needed in the capital.

Wellington Water is owned by Wellington City, Greater Wellington, Porirua, Hutt City, Upper Hutt and South Wairarapa councils.

The Wellington City Council has now written to the Wellington Water Committee asking it to remove Leggett as chairperson.

“As it stands myself, and a majority of Wellington City councillors and pouiwi, do not have confidence in Nick Leggett as Chair of [Wellington Water] and Leanne Southey as the board member responsible for audit and risk,” the letter said.

It was signed by mayor Tory Whanau, deputy mayor Laurie Foon, pouiwi Liz Kelly and Holden Hohaia, as well as councillors Rebecca Matthews, John Apanowicz, Ray Chung, Tim Brown, Teri O’Neill, Ben McNulty, Geordie Rogers, Nīkau Wi Neera, Sarah Free and Iona Pannett.

“The public response to the reports is one of anger and frustration. Rightly so given that millions of dollars in hard earned rate payer money has lined the pockets of contractors while our pipes have further deteriorated over recent years,” it said.

Chung said he may ask for his name to be removed as, while he agreed with the letter, he wanted more accountability from the Wellington Water Committee, which is made up of elected members – most of which are mayors – and mana whenua.

The letter called for an analysis of contracted work for unplanned maintenance with Wellington Water seeking a “recompense on behalf of ratepayers” and a “public and proactive” call for previous staff and contractors to come forward about “poor practice and fraud”.

The findings of the two new reports, plus a council one more than a year ago, should go to the Auditor-General with a request to investigate, they said.

If the committee would not remove Leggett, it called for him, fellow committee member Southey and chief executive Pat Dougherty to front to the council with answers.

They called for the committee to find out from Leggett how he managed conflicts of interests with his dual roles – at Wellington Water and being chief executive of industry group Infrastructure NZ. If answers to these were unsatisfactory, he should be stood down pending an investigation, the letter said.

It expressed frustration that Wellington Water failed to act on a previous report, commissioned by the council more than a year ago, which found similar issues.

“We want to see action and accountability at Wellington Water,” Whanau said.

“That starts at the top and a strong majority of Wellington City councillors and pouiwi no longer have confidence that Nick Leggett is the right person to chair Wellington Water Ltd.”

Leggett had no comment other than that he reported to a shareholder committee, which he was meeting on Monday.

Councillors Diane Calvert, Nicola Young, Tony Randle and Nureddin Abdurahman did not sign.

“While I support the need for accountability and urgent action, this letter risks being reactive rather than constructive,” Calvert wrote to councillors as a draft was circulated.

“Calling for resignations without a full and fair review undermines due process and risks distracting from the deeper governance failures including those at Wellington City Council and the Wellington Water Committee.

“The public expects clear answers and solutions, not political theatre.”