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(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The BulletinAugust 22, 2024

Christopher Luxon’s simple message for councils: get back to basics

(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
(Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

The prime minister demanded local government ‘rein in the fantasies’ and ditch the ‘white elephants’, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

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Groans and applause

Christopher Luxon has delivered a stern message to local councils: tighten your belts and get back to delivering the basics. The prime minister received a somewhat frosty reception at the Local Government New Zealand conference in Wellington yesterday, reported Stuff’s Glenn McConnell, with “groans, but also a smattering of applause” as he took aim at council spending. His biggest target was the council of the region he was speaking in – Wellington – including criticising the venue that the conference was being hosted in. “With pipes bursting and other infrastructure under pressure, Wellington City Council decided to spend $180 million of ratepayers’ money on a convention centre, which, according to public reporting, is now losing money,” the prime minister said.

Ditch the ‘white elephants’

As the Herald’s Georgina Campbell pointed out, the Tākina Convention Centre was actually developed at a time when Wellington’s struggling infrastructure wasn’t in the limelight. Nevertheless, the prime minister had a perfect visual aid to accompany his imagery of creaking infrastructure: a burst water main had flooded a nearby road earlier in the day. Luxon didn’t hold back during his address, urging councils to “rein in the fantasies” and ditch the “white elephants”. Several attendees at the conference publicly condemned the PM’s speech, Campbell reported, including Wellington mayor Tory Whanau who said Luxon had “punched down”. On Twitter, Green Party regional councillor Thomas Nash called Luxon’s address “one of the most mana diminishing, paternalistic and visionless speeches to a group of people I have ever heard”.

Luxon didn’t just come with strong words. There was also proposal, reported the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan, that would restrict the ability of councils to hike rates to pay for non-core spending. Local government minister Simeon Brown said the proposal, which may involve a regulator, had worked in New South Wales. But there’s little detail about what would be considered non-core spending, noted The Post’s Thomas Manch, speculating it could mean cycle ways or just “anything the government deems unworthy”.

The localism debate

All of this sounds a little bit like the government butting into local politics, something which National in opposition was highly critical of. Luxon, speaking to media after his speech, pushed back on that, reported The Post’s Thomas Manch. Councils have a responsibility not to do “dumb stuff”, said the prime minister. “We are big fans of localism and devolution, but with that doesn’t mean we just send cash to the local communities and we get nothing for it in return. We expect a return on that investment.” But as The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus argued earlier this year, since entering government, National has quickly developed a shaky track record when it comes to embracing localism. Ditching Auckland’s regional fuel tax is one such example, with mayor Wayne Brown effectively demanding central government stop interfering in the city he’s in charge of. “This is my city, not theirs,” Brown said. As we discussed earlier in the year, the government also scrapped proposed reforms for the future of local government. On Twitter, Labour’s Kieran McAnulty called Luxon’s latest remarks “cynical”.

Moving forward, the government has shown support for securing cross-party consensus on “city deals” – which, as MacManus explained, “typically involve a long term contract between central government and councils, empowering councils to take on major infrastructure or other projects in exchange for a greater share of the tax take”.

Support for Māori wards

Wellington’s mayor Tory Whanau also took aim at the government for getting involved in the workings of local government when addressing the issue of Māori wards. Under a new law put forward by the government, councils will be required to hold a public referendum at the next local election if they wish to keep or bring in a Māori ward. The Spinoff’s Shanti Mathias explained the intricacies of that proposal earlier in the year. As Waatea News reported, there were protests outside the venue yesterday in support of Māori wards, while inside, council leaders themselves voiced support for having choice. “Councils should decide for themselves on the use of Māori wards,” Whanau said yesterday. Local Democracy’s Susan Botting reported that more than 80% of councils at the meeting endorsed a push against the government’s new legislation led by the Palmerston North council.

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Christchurch Cathedral 10 years after the earthquake. (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images)
Christchurch Cathedral 10 years after the earthquake. (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images)

The BulletinAugust 21, 2024

How ballooning costs led to the mothballing of the Christ Church Cathedral rebuild

Christchurch Cathedral 10 years after the earthquake. (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images)
Christchurch Cathedral 10 years after the earthquake. (Photo by SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images)

What was once the ‘heart of the city’ has since become symbolic of a long, slow rebuild, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

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Cathedral rebuild halted

Work to restore the Christ Church Cathedral has been put on ice indefinitely more than a decade after the devastating earthquake hit the garden city. The Press reported that attempts to fill an $85m funding gap necessary to complete the partially under way reconstruction had failed, effectively stopping any further work in its tracks. Those behind the planned rebuild are holding out hope, however, and a demolition isn’t on the cards at this point. The chairperson of Christ Church Cathedral Reinstatement Ltd, Mark Stewart, said: “Mothballing implies abandonment, we are not abandoning the project.”

Nevertheless, hopes of the iconic landmark returning to its former glory in the near future are rapidly slipping away. Kamala Hayman argues in The Press this morning that with the cathedral set to sit mothballed for years, Christchurch now needs to turn its attention to revitalising the neighbouring Square.

Ballooning costs to blame

You probably remember where you were in early 2011 when a 6.3 magnitude aftershock hit Christchurch, resulting in the deaths of 185 people. It’s a moment etched deeply into New Zealand’s history. It was the 2011 quake that most severely damaged the Christ Church Cathedral, crumbling the spire and leaving only parts of the lower building still standing. This 3News footage (shared by the BBC) from the time shows the extent of the damage in the days after the quake. In the years since, parts of the cathedral were demolished for safety reasons, but it wasn’t until 2017 that plans were put into motion to restore the cathedral. At the time, the costs were estimated to be $104m, which ballooned to $154m by 2020. By this year, as Newsroom’s David Williams reported, the projected cost had blown out to $248 million. There was a funding gap of $114m and $30m was urgently needed to continue the strengthening work that was already under way. The final blow came earlier this month: even after the shortfall had been cut to $85m, there was still a gap to be plugged and central government opted not to step in.

The question of heritage

Williams piece captures perfectly why the campaign to save the cathedral resonates with people, for better or worse. He wrote: “In 2012, and for many years beyond, the cathedral was a symbol of the quake’s destruction, and the city’s indecision.” As this Guardian report from 2021 illustrates, the cathedral was (and remains) the “heart of the city”. But what had once been a symbol of strength for the city became symbolic “of all that was wrong with the rebuilding”. In the year’s since the quake, as the city around the cathedral has been rebuilt, the cathedral has become a memorial to the disaster itself. So is there, asked Williams, still appetite to complete the costly rebuild?

As Max Reeves wrote for The Spinoff last week, the cathedral is emblematic of issues that commonly surround heritage protected buildings in Aotearoa. He argued that while heritage buildings are often preserved for historic or architectural reasons, that can also risk preventing change or necessary evolution. In the case of Christchurch, that has meant 13 years with little change to the cathedral while the rest of the city was rebuilt (including the new Cardboard Cathedral not too far away). We’ve seen far starker examples of this in other parts of the country, notably in Wellington where a “rusty oil tanker” was deemed worthy of protection. In the city centre, the Wellington Town Hall has sat empty for several years as costs for earthquake strengthening soared past $300m, as The Spinoff’s Joel MacManus looked at in this excellent feature last year. This Re:News report from earlier in the year provides a good overview of what constitutes a heritage building and why they can cause such consternation.

Protecting the future

In the wake of the quakes, former earthquake recovery minister Gerry Brownlee infamously labelled some buildings “old dungas” that needed to be removed. The current government has expressed some frustration around heritage buildings and how they can stall future development. In announcing his decision on the Wellington District Plan earlier this year, Joel MacManus reported, housing minister Chris Bishop said he wanted to work with councils to find a solution.

Another issue the government is already tackling is around the remediation of earthquake-prone buildings. It has a bill on the books currently that would extend the timeframe to repair buildings at risk of earthquake damage by four years. Public consultation on the lengthily-named “Building (Earthquake-prone Building Deadlines and Other Matters) Amendment Bill” closes in just a few days. It’s an interim measure while a wider review of the earthquake-prone building system initiated by the government is carried out. The minister responsible, Chris Penk, told RNZ’s Morning Report he expected it would ultimately make the rules for addressing earthquake-prone buildings “less onerous”, arguing that “high remediation costs and an excessive layering of regulations” had meant earthquake-prone buildings were not being restored.

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