The government is seeking advice on whether it could – or should – intervene, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

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Threats ramp up

Government ministers have raised the prospect of intervening in Wellington Council, or potentially even triggering an early election. It all started with comments made by finance minister Nicola Willis in an interview with Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan on Monday evening. Willis described the council as a “shambles” and revealed that the local government minister, Simeon Brown, was keeping a close eye on the situation. By Tuesday morning, the prime minister Christopher Luxon had weighed in, telling du Plessis-Allan’s colleague Mike Hosking that he was concerned. “If we have to make an intervention we will,” he said. Brown, who actually has the power to step in, later told Stuff that discussions about the council actually started with officials last week and he asked for advice on Sunday.

At this point, these are simply threats – and threats that were only made public after questions on live radio. Politically, it’s understandable why the government would wish to publicly reprimand the Wellington Council given previous demands from the PM to “rein in the fantasies” and ditch the “white elephants”. But to actually do anything would be a drastic move given there is a local election in less than 12 months time which would give the people of Wellington their chance to have a say.

The final straw

We’ll take a look in a moment at what options are actually on the table, but first, how did we end up here. There have been numerous high profile issues in Wellington reported over the past few months (from bursting pipes to drama over the Reading Cinema complex). While not all of this can be laid squarely at the foot of the current council, there is nevertheless a growing perception that Wellington his reached a boiling point – and the council isn’t helping. In her piece for The Post yesterday, Andrea Vance made reference to this by noting that in the same week government ministers consider what to do about the council, “traffic banked up under the windows of the Beehive” from an apparently “controversial” new cycleway build.

Her Stuff colleague Glenn McConnell added that while some of Wellington’s challenges are “not unique”, it has nevertheless become something of a punching bag for the government. But until last week the prospect of any sort of government intervention seemed highly unlikely. The final straw was a frenzied debate on Thursday in which the council voted not to sell its 34% share in the airport, forcing the can of worms that is its long term plan to be reopened and, as explained by The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus in his latest Windbag column, bringing constitutional questions around te Tiriti o Waitangi to the fore.

If it all sounds messy, that’s because it has been. But even on Friday, the day after the vote failed, Whanau was denying need for any sort of government intervention and instead calling the failed vote “a bit of a blow”.

What options are on the table?

Brown’s powers are all clearly laid out in black and white in the Local Government Act, and there is a particular threshold that would need to be reached for any intervention to be permissible (in short, it requires the minister to “on reasonable grounds” believe there is a significant issue impacting the region the council represents).

During that interview with Newstalk ZB on Monday night, Nicola Willis was pushed on what action could be taken should the government choose to step in. “You often hear people talking about a commissioner, but there are things other than a commissioner that he can do.” It could be reading too much into it, but Willis’s comments suggest a less serious option is more likely here. One such possibility, as raised by former mayor Kerry Prendergast in an interview with Newstalk ZB, would be to bring in a a Crown observer to assist the council and provide updates to the government. Or, Simeon Brown could trigger an early election in Wellington – the more democratic option given it would give the city the chance to decide whether it was comfortable with the existing council (but nevertheless an option that comes with a cost, especially given an election is just around the corner). Brown, reported Imogen Wells for ThreeNews, hasn’t ruled out doing this.

If you’re getting déjà vu…

It’s not unheard of to have government step in to address local government chaos. We’ve talked previously talked in The Bulletin about Tauranga, which recently held its first election in five years after commissioners replaced the council in 2019. The then-local government minister Nanaia Mahuta stepped in after “significant governance problems among the council’s elected representatives”, explained the Bay of Plenty Times.

The commission chair was Anne Tolley, a former National minister, who told The Post’s Kevin Norquay this week that the threshold for intervention is high, and can risk upsetting voters who believe they should be the ones to decide who runs the city. “To override democracy is extremely unusual and unique, and the law requires a really high test. The legislation protects the democratic process,” Tolley said.

Wellington Council, while facing very real and urgent challenges, would appear to be in a better situation than Tauranga was at the time commissioners were brought in. Though if dysfunction is the bar, some councillors have publicly backed the need for action. “To quite a few of us, and the public included, intervention has been needed for some time,” Wellington councillor Diane Calvert told RNZ.