ACT Local Government spokesperson Cameron Luxton is welcoming today’s announcement that the Minister intends to appoint a Crown Observer to Wellington City Council.

“The Council is an absolute shambles,” says Mr Luxton.

“What should be a thriving capital city is being run into the ground by reckless decisions and sheer incompetence.

“Tauranga has seen firsthand the consequences of stripping away local democracy, and I don’t want to see Wellington go down the same path. Any step that can fix the city while preserving local democracy is one I fully support.

“A Crown Observer will give the Coalition Government the opportunity to look under the hood of the council, assess what’s going wrong, and assist the council in good governance – something that has been sorely lacking to date.

“Many of the issues are well-known already. The Council is recklessly wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on ideological projects like cycleways, removing cars from the golden mile, and the wrecked town hall. While this is happening, leaks continue to appear all across the city and wastewater is being pumped into the harbour.

“But the deeper governance issues and factors influencing the Council’s poor decision making need to see the light of day. At the very least it will expose the poor leadership, ensuring they can be held accountable at the next local body elections on 11 October 2025.

"The Council must ensure that they have crown observer not a clown observer. That means putting their egos and ideologies aside and for once in their lives put the ratepayers of Wellington first.

"I urge them to heed the advice of the Observer, and take all necessary steps to cut waste, fix the crumbling infrastructure and keep rates down.”

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