Wellington City Council intervention claims run ahead of the facts

"Have you heard from anyone in government?' the host of Newstalk ZB's Wellington Mornings show Nick Mills asked Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau last Monday.

She had not.

"Simeon Brown hasn't called?" he asked.

"No. No one from government's called."

"What about email?"

"No, nothing. No contact," Whanau told the startled host, four days after her fellow councillors had killed her plan to sell a stake in the capital's airport.

That means hundreds of millions of dollars no longer available for the council's Long Term Plan - and for a recently revealed epic insurance shortfall.

"Are you concerned that your relationship with the coalition government's now on shaky ground? Do you think that you might see something from them?" Mills asked again.

"I'm not expecting anything," Whanau replied.

But powerful figures in central government said plenty to the media in the hours after that. They created headlines about the government intervening - or even taking the council over - which ran all week.

On ZB's Drive show, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the situation was a "shambles" and the LTP might be in jeopardy.

The Herald headlined Local Government Minister Simeon Brown saying it "looks like a shambles" while Wellington's daily The Post went with Hutt South MP Chris Bishop's description: "schemozzle."

The prime minister took it up a notch, telling reporters there was "a level of council dysfunction that's not serving the people of Wellington".

"The minister (Brown) has been monitoring it closely. He's taking advice, and will have more to say about it shortly."

Ominous.

Central government intervention had already been floated on Nick Mills' ZB show the day after the airport shares vote.

Former mayor Kerry Prendergast told Mills it was time for a Crown observer.

"The first thing I would do was ask for a list of all the basic infrastructure projects and say those are the things going ahead, and put a halt on everything else until we sort out basic infrastructure," she said.

On Monday, ZB's Drive show host Heather Du Plessis-Allan wondered aloud if Prendergast was a "stalking horse" for National - but endorsed her call for action on the air nonetheless.

So did ZB's senior political correspondent Barry Soper, who said Tory Whanau had "run Wellington into the ground", citing cycleways as the problem.

The next day, ZB's Mike Hosking asked the PM if his government would intervene, having earlier spoken of "Chris and Nicola coming down the road and putting in some professionals".

There were more - and more strident - urgings from the ZB breakfast host later in the week.

But it wasn't just ZB listeners who might have been convinced it was all over for the WCC.

RNZ the same day said Simeon Brown had threatened to intervene, while The Spinoff ran the headline 'Will the Wellington Council survive until the next election?'

But at this point media were running ahead of what politicians were actually saying, let alone the process for intervening.

"Sources indicate a Crown observer is the most likely first step. A dry, accountant-type whose focus is firmly on the financials," Stuff's Andrea Vance said under the headline 'Attention Wellington City Council ‒ this is not a drill'.

"The optics will always be challenging," she added, citing a newly opened bike lane just outside Parliament as if it was designed to provoke Simeon Brown.

Vance had her own advice for the minister.

"Stop making idle threats - and step in. Or keep his nose out, and let Whanau and her councillors fix their own mess," she opined on the front page of The Post on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Herald Wellington reporter Georgina Campbell said calls for government intervention in Wellington in recent years "have been a disproportionate reaction" - until now.

Why now?

Because the council's LTP is at stake, she said.

But Campbell also pointed out: "Having to amend a Long Term Plan is not concerning - or unusual. It is set every three years - and some financial situations need addressing outside that timeframe."

Campbell went on to say that on the other hand, it is not a good look to amend the plan that Wellington City Council voted on as recently as June.

But there's nothing about 'optics' in the The Local Government Act.

That says the government can intervene if there is a "significant problem" that "detracts from a local authority's ability to meet its obligations under the Act".

In a well-timed explainer on Wednesday, Stuff's Kevin Norquay said it was a high legislative bar.

"Unlike Tauranga, Wellington City Council is still able to make decisions, and is not insolvent, as Kaipara was deemed to be," he wrote.

Norquay also pointed out KPMG told the Council not selling airport shares would not actually land the WCC in further financial strife - provided no major disaster struck.

Lessons from the past

When the DIA inquired into chronic fractures in councils at Tauranga and Invercargill, the prospect of the governor intervening then alarmed Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, who accused the PM at the time of planning to take over the councils.

The government eventually appointed a commissioner in Tauranga - but not in Invercargill.

But after Tauranga finally restored local leadership in July, a fired-up Hosking seemed to have changed his position.

"We need a half a dozen commissioners in this country to kick some arse and get this place going. And enough of the democracy. Look at Tauranga over the weekend. 31 percent turnover [sic]. People don't want democracy, do they?"

"Well, look, I'll always stand up for local democracy Mike. But it can be a hell of a lot better," said PM Luxon, during a short break in the traffic.

After Wellington ZB host Nick Mills said he was disappointed by the PM's lack of action, ZB's political editor Jason Walls told him this ratepayers would "care less about the government wading into democracy - and care a little bit more about the fact that their wallets are getting a little bit lighter."

"From the government's perspective, they're cutting taxes, the Reserve Bank is cutting the Official Cash Rate and everybody should be getting a little bit richer."

And while the Herald's Front Page podcast on Wednesday asked 'Where did it all go wrong in Wellington?', Wellington City councillor Tim Brown - a former chair of Wellington Airport - struggled to tell a hostile du Plessis-Allan it wasn't all wrong.

That ended with councillor Brown calling her criticisms "bullshit" and the host betting Brown a beer the government will take over.

On RNZ National's Morning Report that day, another councillor - Ben McNulty - said it was only a few areas where councillors could not agree.

Rolling back

Whanau emerged from a chat with the local government minister on Thursday and told reporters he didn't raise the prospect of intervention.

The minister himself said he was waiting on officials' advice.

But media kept talking up the prospect.

Stuff's Jenna Lynch said government picked this fight, chose to have it in public and would look weak without action.

"No one likes an eggy face," she added, reporting an unnamed Beehive source as saying "it was more likely than not government would intervene".

And it would and should, her Stuff colleague Luke Malpass firmly told Post readers - in a piece labelled 'analysis' which had a fair bit of his own opinion in it.

Malpass also reckoned it might happen quite quickly, because "the politics demands it".

The media seemed to be adding to the demand at that time.

But by Friday, the tone had shifted.

"If a left-leaning council needs to sell assets and make big budget cuts, Simeon Brown should consider leaving them to it," the Herald's Georgina Campbell said in an opinion piece headlined 'Should Simeon Brown run a mile?'

On Morning Report's political panel the same day, the same thought occurred to the Herald's deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan.

"Why would Simeon Brown want to attach himself to what's inevitably going to be a messy few months at Wellington City Council?" he asked.

Good question.

Meanwhile, The Post pointed out that it all depended on the officials' advice to the minister.

There was no shortage of advice and opinion from the media in the meantime.

This weekend, The Post had no further news to report, but columnist Janet Wilson said "the government displayed all the strategy of a blowfly in a bottle in admonishing the council even before receiving official advice if such an intervention reached the necessary threshold for intervention".

But Wilson - a PR professional who has media-trained politicians - insisted Brown "looks certain to move against the council".

Wellington's mayor might think back to a previous time she was under intense media scrutiny for her socialising on licensed premises in the CBD.

The Post, RNZ and others reported claims that a video of her behaving badly was circulating.

Pundits seemed certain it would appear any day and put more pressure in the mayor to explain, apologise or even quit.

It never did.