Dunne's Weekly: Mator Whanau's Rare Win - To Her City's Detriment

DUNNE’S WEEKLY

Wellington’s controversial and embattled Mayor Tory Whanau deserves some political credit for the content of the $400 million savings package she steered through her fractious Council this week.

With one or two exceptions - most notably the Botanic Gardens' iconic Begonia House which is threatened with demolition - many of the pet projects that have divided councillors for so long have been saved, at least for now. The Mayor has even managed to protect her beloved plan to pedestrianise the city’s famous Golden Mile from Courtenay Place to Lambton Quay, thus preserving at least some of her Green credentials. Earlier, she had declared her Golden Mile project sacrosanct, at the same time as she was calling on every other councillor to set aside their own personal wish lists as they grappled with the city’s mounting financial problems.

However, while the Mayor can claim some credit for this week’s decisions, the Council still has a long way to go on its journey towards fiscal rectitude. The $360 to $400 million of savings projected in this week's decisions are still well short of the $530 million of potential savings identified by Council officers. Whether they will be enough to satisfy both the government's recently appointed Crown Observer and ultimately the Minister of Local Government remains to be seen. And those decisions still need to be confirmed by the full Council which has a remarkable track record of overturning committee recommendations on important financial decisions. It should be remembered it was the full Council that overturned the original decision to sell the Council's shareholding in Wellington International Airport which precipitated the current financial crisis over funding the city’s Long-term Plan.

In many senses the Council’s task has only just begun, and much ground remains to be recovered before it is likely to be seen by both Crown Observer and the Minister as operating in a responsible and fiscally sustainable way. While the Mayor can feel some satisfaction at the limited progress to date, her fist-pumping "we've got this" comment at the end of the meeting was both gauche and foolishly premature, giving the chronic erratic unpredictability of her supporters on the Council.

The endangered Begonia House and the slavish determination to proceed with the Golden Mile project in their own way highlight why Mayor Whanau’s Council is so ridiculed. The Begonia House was gifted to the city in 1961 by the family of the industrialist Sir Walter Norwood. It has been a popular site for visitors and local people since then. However, the removal of carparking on nearby streets because of the Council’s obsession with installing cycleways had made the Begonia House more inaccessible, and the cafeteria business associated with it less viable. The Council’s solution, therefore, is that the Begonia House has had its day and should be demolished, arousing the ire of many Wellingtonians. In the view of the councillors supporting the Mayor, it is a symbol of Wellington’s past, out of step with the cycle and pedestrian friendly future they see for the city. The idea that the Begonia House should be handed over to private enterprise to run efficiently, and that more carparking should be provided to improve access to it, is complete anathema to their intentions.

The Mayor’s determination to proceed with her Golden Mile project, come hell or high water, is in a similar vein. At first glance the proposal to pedestrianise the Golden Mile, save for buses and cycles is an attractive one. But it has stirred up a hornet's nest amongst inner city businesses. Many are already struggling to regain customers after Covid19 and the long period of people working from home. On top of this there has been the general economic slowdown and the impact of public sector redundancies. Many businesses have already closed, while others are teetering on the brink. They fear the Golden Mile proposals will be the final straw.

For its part, the Council has appeared singularly uninterested in their plight, sticking doggedly to its determination to rid the central city of cars to make it more pedestrian and cycle friendly, in line with its overall vision. The fact that the city’s existing character will likely be changed irreparably, at the cost of many long-standing businesses seems to matter little to Mayor Whanau and the tight, out of their depth, clique of councillors around her. All that matters to them is that the city will appear a little greener, even if it ends up a shell of its former self.

Still, for a Mayor for whom nearly everything has gone wrong in the last two years, this week’s Council decisions are a rare and welcome win, even if they are perpetuating the wrong direction the city has been heading in. But if they are confirmed when the Council finalises its long-term plan, they still offer little prospect of immediate relief to beleaguered ratepayers reeling from substantial rates hikes this year and the prospect of more to come. For them, two options remain: in the short-term there is the wishful hope that the Crown Observer will be able to install some sense of wise spending and financial discipline into the Council. However, the longer-term and far more likely option remains that voters, tired of the incompetent shenanigans, will resolve the issue for themselves when they vote in next year’s Mayoral and Council elections.

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