Last minute bid to keep Wellington City Council’s airport shares, will Government bring in commissioners?

Wellington City Council has a 34% share in Wellington Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Last-minute bids are being made to keep a public stake in the capital’s airport - one of which could threaten to derail Wellington City Council’s long-term plan.

The council has voted at a committee level to sell its 34% share in the airport. The proceeds of the sale would be transferred into a new green perpetual investment fund to diversify the council’s portfolio.

Now, a city councillor is investigating whether an effective second vote can be held on the issue as a near-majority looks to vote down the 10-year budget.

Meanwhile, Greater Wellington Regional Council is considering whether it should buy the shares if the sale does go through.

Newstalk ZB Drive host Heather du Plessis-Allan asked Local Government Minister Simeon Brown whether the Government would consider intervening if the council could not pass its budget.

“That is obviously a significant issue if they can’t pass their long-term plan,” Brown said.

The airport sale is part of the budget that’s due to be confirmed by councillors next week.

The grunt work on voting issue-by-issue has already been thrashed out and usually, all that remains is a rubber stamping exercise.

However, the airport sale has soured from controversial to somewhat of a fiasco.

Councillors Ben McNulty, Nīkau Wi Neera and Nureddin Abdurahman, who all voted against the sale, have publicly withdrawn their unconditional support for the mayor’s policies after the controversial airport vote.

They are concerned it was presented to them by council officials as a fait accompli, that the mayor did not campaign on the sale but championed it, and it was revealed at the eleventh hour that $450 million of capital spending would need to be cut if the shares were not sold.

Abdurahman is now investigating whether the airport issue can be taken as a separate vote when the budget is confirmed next week. This would effectively mean the airport can be voted on again.

Abdurahman said he would not vote in favour of the long-term plan unless the airport was considered separately.

At least one councillor has already changed their mind about the sale.

Councillor Nureddin Abdurahman is now investigating whether the airport issue can be taken as a separate vote. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Councillor Tony Randle said capital spending has not been reduced to preserve $272m of insurance debt headroom, which he said was the condition of his and three other councillors’ support for the airport sale.

Randle said he has not seen any new compelling information at this point and he would be voting against the long-term plan.

Some councillors, including McNulty, are waiting for the publication of next week’s meeting papers before forming an opinion.

Other councillors, like Nicola Young, intend to vote against the long-term plan because she believed there were not enough serious spending cuts to keep rates increases down.

More than one of their colleagues is keenly aware of the consequences of any majority building against the long-term plan.

Councillor Rebecca Matthews, who is against selling the airport, said adopting a budget was fundamental to their role under the law.

“I don’t walk away from those responsibilities because I didn’t vote for every single thing in the plan.”

Councillor Teri O’Neill said councillors will essentially be taking a vote of no confidence in themselves if they “sabotage” the budget.

“This, in turn, will result in the sacking of the most progressive council the country currently has under this National Party Government.”

Councillor Tim Brown said he was reasonably confident the Government would dissolve the council and send in commissioners if they couldn’t pass the long-term plan.

Regional council mulls buying airport shares

Hutt City Council Mayor Campbell Barry wrote to GWRC chairman Daran Ponter today about the impending airport sale.

Barry said it would be remiss of the region not to undertake an in-depth analysis of retaining public ownership.

“A more thorough process could have engaged the wider region on options of retaining shares in public ownership regionally, as well as freeing up cash for Wellington City Council to assist with their financial challenges.”

It made sense logistically for GWRC to take the lead on what regional ownership of the shares could look like, Barry said.

Barry said he understood regional councillors have already met about it and their chief executive was involved in a “desktop exercise” on the shares issue.

Both Greater Wellington Regional Council chairman Daran Ponter and Barry are overseas and could not be reached for further comment.

Brown was unimpressed by the idea.

“Councils are very quick to cry poor but now they’re looking at literally trying to buy a stake in the airport”, he said.

“They need to be focused on their core business of making sure they’re looking at roads, water, the critical infrastructure that ratepayers rely on rather than getting into shares.”

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said after the long-term plan was adopted next week, council officers will begin working on the process for selling the shares and provide advice before the end of the year.

“The share sale process will be open and transparent and Greater Wellington Regional Council would be able to participate in that if they wish to buy the shares.”

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter who has a particular interest in local government, transport, and seismic issues. She joined the Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.