Wellington City Council intervention is a warning shot for other New Zealand councils

Wellington Mayor Tori Whānau says she welcomes Local Government Minister Simeon Brown’s decision to appoint a crown monitor.
Photo: RNZ

Analysis: The government’s decision to intervene in Wellington Council’s problems means its ultimate success or failure will affect not only the mayor, but also the prime minister.

The big move to appoint a Crown monitor, which some scholars say is an overreach, has set a new threshold for any council member who misbehaves.

Councils often suffer from dysfunction and disorder; they just often don’t receive the same level of campaign attention that Wellington has experienced in recent months.

The Green Party mayor, with a card of a left-wing majority on the council, sitting just five minutes’ walk from the most right-wing cabinet in decades, has already raised questions about the motives for government intervention.

The Prime Minister disagreed with the idea that political differences were to blame, but the scrutiny of Wellington’s mayor and council was intense, and Tory Whānau attributed this in part to the city’s proximity to the Beehive.

The hunt for the watchdog is now on, assuming Local Government Minister Simeon Brown had not yet made much effort to find someone before his intervention announcement on Tuesday.

The moment Brown, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and finance and infrastructure ministers Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop (both Wellingtonians) two weeks ago, began criticizing the council over problems with its long-term plan, the path to an observer was already clear. .

Ministers could criticize the council but at the same time point to elections in just 12 months where voters could democratically decide the fate of whanau and its councillors.

Instead, they launched into a tirade about “junk” along with threats of intervention, immediately making a deal that they would have to follow through through action.

Whānau is answering questions from the media after it announced the appointment of a government observer to the council.
Photo: RNZ/Samuel Rillstone

The whānau are a former Hive politician and have played it smart so far, saying they welcome their intervention and have no plans to challenge it.

At her press conference Tuesday afternoon following Brown’s announcement, she deliberately told reporters that “we need help, not throwing punches.”

The Government have now painted themselves into a corner in forcing this assistance, and if the result is no better than the present “drums” then the blame will also fall on Luxon, Willis, Brown and Bishop.

Brown will be looking for someone in the supervisor who can review the council’s financial records and find a way to get the books back into shape.

While former National Party politicians Anne Tolley and Lawrence Yule have been appointed Tauranga commissioner and Hawke’s Bay regional crown manager respectively, the observer’s role will be less about policy matters and board knowledge and more about accounting.

For this reason, it is quite possible that the observer will come from or have experience of working for one of the leading accounting firms, and will be professionally respected and have no specific political connections.

The coalition has already been accused of only intervening because its political ideologies differ from those of the council majority.

This reduces the likelihood that the observer will have real or perceived ties to the current government.

The watchdog’s role will almost certainly work closely with the council’s chief financial officer to identify the problems Brown pointed out Tuesday – an unworkable long-term plan and a shift in water costs that the council first passes on to taxpayers rather than taking on more debt financing.

But as Lower Hutt Mayor Campbell Barry said Morning report Earlier on Wednesday, problems with water infrastructure funding are not unique to Wellington City Council.

“I would say that most city councils across the country would be in the same position because at present, in accordance with our long-term plan developed several months ago, we were obliged to stick to the margin, to stay within the balance sheet capabilities that we have. we were,” he said.

“And what the government proposed in the Wellington case, and they say they should have done, they couldn’t do, which seems very unusual.”

The coalition’s threshold for intervention has now been set, and while Willis says no other councils are now in the government’s crosshairs, a warning shot has been fired.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero’s daily newsletter. curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.