‘C-word’ invoked over Christchurch city councillor’s bid to force director donations

Thursday, 29 May 2025

A bid to force a city councillor to pay his director fees to charity within 30 days has narrowly failed, but not before a “C-word” flew.

Cr Aaron Keown brought up the “C-word” “recently used in Parliament” when criticising colleague Cr Melanie Coker for bringing the issue to the council.

ACT’s Brooke van Velden controversially repeated the word “c***” in Parliament to hit out at a column by Sunday Star-Times columnist Andrea Vance about changes to the Equal Pay Act.

Christchurch City Council’s finance and performance committee was, on Wednesday, discussing a recommendation put forward by Coker that would have forced councillors who sit on boards to donate their director fees to the Mayor’s Welfare Fund within 30 days.

The move was directed at Cr James Gough, who despite a council policy that says directors’ fees must be donated to the fund in the year the funds were received, has not donated any fees in two years.

Gough said in April, and again after Wednesday’s meeting, he intended to donate the money at the end of the council term in October “or as close as practicably possible”.

He said he had taken this approach to avoid “repeated and unnecessary administrative costs” relating to tax issues.

Gough earned $13,300 in 2023 and $41,000 in 2024 in his role on the Transwaste Canterbury board. The figure is expected to rise by October.

Gough said he discussed the approach with mayor Phil Mauger, staff and fund chairman Cr Yani Johanson, who all acknowledged it was the most practical and efficient way forward.

Gough is the only elected member who has not donated earnings to the Mayor’s Welfare Fund, an obligation agreed by council in 2023. Gough opposed the move at the time.

The fund, established in 1897, provides assistance to families and individuals in extreme financial difficulty.

Most organisations that councillors are appointed to deposit their director fees directly to the fund. Transwaste does not.

Council staff have previously requested Transwaste donate fees directly, but it has declined to do so. It wants to treat all its directors the same.

Coker also wanted council to repeat that request.

She said the public expected councillors to act with honesty and integrity and it was incumbent on councillors to uphold all facets of the policy that was agreed to in 2023.

Cr Aaron Keown said Coker’s recommendation felt “vindictive and nasty”.

“I don’t think the people of Spreydon (Coker’s ward) are being well represented here. There was a word recently used in Parliament which was an interesting c-word…”

Keown was then interrupted by chair Sam MacDonald, who warned Keown “don’t go there”.

Keown went on to say “well it was used and I was going to use another one here today, communism”.

The vote was tied 7-7, which means the status quo remains, so the recommendation failed.

During the vote, Cr Jake McLellan called out “corruption” to the councillors voting against it.

Johanson did not take part in the debate or vote, due to his role as fund chairperson and the perception of bias.

Legal advice received from council staff, seen by The Press, said there was no conflict that would preclude him from voting.

After the meeting, Johanson said given the nature of the debate around the table, he felt vindicated to have stayed clear of the issue.

Cr Tyla Harrison-Hunt was late to the meeting and missed the vote.

The report was to be discussed close to the end of the meeting but MacDonald brought it forward to the start.

After the meeting, Harrison-Hunt said he had let MacDonald know he would be late due to another council commitment and he believed MacDonald took advantage of that, deliberately bringing the item forward, knowing it would be a close vote.

He described MacDonald as a “cheeky bugger”.

Harrison-Hunt, who like Coker is a member of the Labour-aligned political grouping People’s Choice, said he would have supported Coker’s recommendation.

MacDonald denied any skulduggery.

He said he moved the report to the start of the meeting because it was a contentious item and he did not want the issue to affect the entire meeting.

If Harrison-Hunt wanted to vote then he needed to show up on time, MacDonald said.

Councillors to vote for the recommendation: Sara Templeton, Tyrone Fields, Celeste Donovan, Pauline Cotter, Andrei Moore, Coker, McLellan. Against: Mark Peters, Kelly Barber, Tim Scandrett, Victoria Henstock, Mauger, Keown, MacDonald.

The urgent changes to the Equal Pay Act made it harder for women to make pay equity claims and cancelled 33 existing claims.