Media Insider: Winton Land CEO Chris Meehan on PM Chris Hipkins and why he’s launched his red-tape ad campaign

The Winton advertising campaign calls out PM Chris Hipkins and the Government's red-tape bureaucracy.

Chris Meehan counts Denmark’s royal family among his personal friends. He and his wife Michaela’s fortune is valued at a cool $600 million, and they are both accomplished sailors. But off the water, Meehan is involved in a different sort of contest - with the Government and what he sees as red-tape bureaucracy. A special Media Insider interview that complements our normal weekly column.

The advertisements are brash, cheeky and - some might say - slightly risky. They’re certainly effective headline grabbers.

They’re also rare in the circumstances: A publicly listed company, led by a normally publicity-shy rich-lister, taking on the Government and the Prime Minister - or ‘Chippy’ as the ads refer to him.

That businessman, Chris Meehan, says he hates the limelight – and court action – but he’s leading the marketing charge for his business, Winton Land, to try to tear down ‘red tape’ that he says is suffocating key property developments.

The various newspaper advertisements take a potshot at KiwiBuild – “only 293 years to go” – and describe New Zealand as the “land of the long red tape”. Another declares: “If only houses could be built out of red tape”.

Winton Land CEO and rich-lister Chris Meehan. Photo / supplied

Bemoaning the fact that one of its key developments – almost 5000 affordable homes in an environmentally friendly project called Sunfield in south Auckland – has been rejected for fast-tracking, Winton Land is not only taking the Government‘s housing agency Kāinga Ora to the High Court for what it believes is anti-competitive behaviour, it has also launched the marketing broadside.

Winton ponders why it can’t be allowed to get on with what it does best – building homes – so that the Prime Minister can stay focused on other priorities such as broken infrastructure and environmental issues. “All we need is your scissors for that red tape. What do you say Chippy? Will you sit down and hammer out a plan? We’ll bring the biscuits,” says one of the ads. Others are in a similar vein.

The Winton advertising campaign calls out PM Chris Hipkins and the Government's red-tape bureaucracy.

On a video call this week from Queenstown – he splits his time between there and Auckland – Meehan is even more forthright. “I just want to get on and do my thing. I want to build houses – that’s what we do. I hate the limelight, that’s the last thing I want.”

He cannot understand why the Government and Kāinga Ora have not used their powers under the Urban Development Act to allow the Sunfield development in Auckland to be fast-tracked, in order to lift supply and ease the housing crisis. Housing Minister Megan Woods also declined to have it assessed.

“We were used to this sort of going nowhere with the previous Prime Minister… I think the whole world, unfortunately, had to get used to it,” Meehan told the Herald this week.

But when Hipkins came to power and met with Auckland business leaders in his first full day on the job, there was new hope, he said. He made all the right noises about wanting to work with the private sector to get things moving. “Everyone took that on board – he made a big song and dance but he just hasn’t followed through.”

Meehan says Winton has written to Hipkins, even before the advertising campaign, but heard nothing back. “He says he wants affordable houses and clean, green transport and low emissions energy and jobs but when it comes down to it, you know, we write to him and we don’t get anything back.”

Media Insider sent a list of specific questions to the PM’s office, asking whether Hipkins had seen the ads and his response to them.

A spokesman confirmed Hipkins was aware of the campaign but said that - because the matter was before the courts - there was little more he could say. Questions about whether he had responded to correspondence with Winton were not specifically answered. The PM’s office did detail what it saw as Winton’s issues with the Sunfield application (more on that and Kāinga Ora’s position are detailed below). The PM’s office said it was also committed to partnering with the business community to find solutions to issues such as housing.

Chris Meehan is certainly a colourful character.

As the Herald’s Anne Gibson reported in 2021, he and Michaela are friends with the Danish royal family and they love sailing. Chris reached competitive heights in several international classes and wife Michaela is a former Olympian - she competed at the Atlanta, Sydney and Athens Games. The couple have three teenage children.

“We’ve known the Danish royal family for a very long time, 25 to 30 years,” Meehan told Gibson, referring to Australian-born Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark. “We’re very close friends.”

He also sailed with Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark in the two-person Tasar class at the 2009 World Masters Games in Sydney.

Crown Prince Frederik (left), of Denmark with Chris Meehan during the 2009 Masters Games in Sydney. Photo / Getty Images

Last year, the National Business Review valued the Meehans’ net worth at $600 million. As the Herald reported last year, the couple rose to prominence in 2021 with the public listing of Winton Land, named after the Southland town where Chris grew up. The company raised $350 million in an IPO in December that year and was aiming to create about $5b worth of new developments, including an expansion of high-end retirement villages.

It’s rare for a publicly listed company to make such a public, bold stance but Meehan told the Herald this week that his shareholders back him over the new ad campaign.

He says the response from the public and broader industry has been “phenomenal”. “They say thank god someone’s making a point of this. For the most part, people are either too scared to, whether they’ve been insufficiently resourced or they think it’s better to hold their peace. But their support has been phenomenal.”

One of the recent Winton advertisements states that just 1 per cent of the country’s land mass is occupied by houses and that if this was lifted to 1.1 per cent, the housing crisis wouldn’t exist.

“One thing I find amazing in New Zealand is the Government does an extraordinarily good job of artificially constraining the supply of housing,” says Meehan. “They really put this artificial limit on where you can and can’t put houses.”

And he says, there are deeper issues. “I think the bit that’s missed is all the social problems that stem from a housing crisis. You’ve got these poor kids being shuffled from school to school because they can’t find rental accommodation, so they don’t get a proper education.

“You’ve got all sorts of people getting sick because they’re living in garages and cars and goodness knows what, and you’ve got the Government itself spending a million-and-a-half dollars a day on motel rooms, all because there aren’t many houses.

“If they simply relaxed the rules a bit and allowed the private sector to go and build more houses rather than continually fighting against us, all these problems just simply wouldn’t exist. And I really don’t understand why they don’t do it.

“Yes, we are pushing our own barrow but actually there’s a bit more to it, as far as I’m concerned.”

Winton CEO Chris Meehan. Photo / Supplied

As for the court action against Kāinga Ora, “Unfortunately in New Zealand now, under the way the planning rules exist, if you want to get things done and consented, court is just a reality of your week-to-week existence.

“We don’t like going to court. I’d much prefer never to be in court. But if you want to get things done, and you want to get consents issued, it’s just an unfortunate fact of life of doing business in New Zealand.”

The arguments about the Sunfield development have been in the headlines over the past 12 months.

Kāinga Ora insists the development does not meet the criteria for fast-tracking under the UDA; that Winton has not consulted neighbours such as Ardmore Airport, or the council and Waka Kotahi; and that various issues need to be sorted, including flood concerns.

This is backed up by the Prime Minister’s office.

“Winton is seeking for the development to be a Specified Development Project (SDP),” said the PM’s spokesman in a statement. “Kāinga Ora did not support selecting the development for assessment as an SDP for a number of reasons, most notably unresolved Auckland Council concerns about the flood risks on the site, potential noise sensitivity from the neighbouring Ardmore Airport, and an unwillingness by the developer to meet with key stakeholders.

“However there is nothing stopping Winton going through the normal process of applying for a plan change to progress this development.

“The Government has made massive changes to cut red tape and enable new housing including fast-track consenting through the RMA. The evidence of the success of this is the record number of residential building consents and construction activity after massive system changes to encourage more density in our urban areas and encourage new builds,” says the PM’s office.

“The Government is committed to finding opportunities to partner with business to fix issues like housing. However, that doesn’t mean every project can get automatic backing.”

Meehan counters this by saying consultation happens after a UDA fast-track is granted, that consultation with iwi has been well under way already; and that they have spent millions already to come up with a peer-reviewed engineering plan to resolve the flood concern. Besides, he says, the council has already bought a portion of the land to extend a planned stormwater convergence channel.

“Kāinga Ora haven’t seen our expert reports on that so they wouldn’t know whether there is a solution or not – they haven’t even asked to see them.”

He also describes Kāinga Ora as a poacher turned gamekeeper, by so far only approving its own developments to be fast-tracked under the UDA. Part of its High Court action is based on a claim of anti-competitive behaviour.

A legal hearing is not expected until 2024. In the meantime, the company is also pushing the project through the more onerous RMA process.

In February, Winton updated its 2023 financial year guidance – with a forecast profit down from $98.8 million (at the time of its IPO) to $72.4m-$82.4 million – as a result of heavy rainfall this past summer across the North Island. The company said it had lost about 83 per cent of the summer earthworks season, incurred water damage to pre-ordered supplies and expects supply chain impacts.

Meehan insists shareholders, including Macquarie Asset Management, back his stance. Winton’s share price was trading at $1.98 on Friday morning, down from $3.87 when it went public.

Meehan says the shares are very thinly traded – something like only 1 per cent have changed hands since listing. “None of the big shareholders want to part with any of their shares.”

Macquarie, he says, is a fantastic shareholder. “I haven’t got enough good things to say about them. Our world has opened up to a bunch of smart people. It’s been the best thing we have done.”

* Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand’s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.