Farmers sue bank for $7.5m

The Wellington region, and the city in particular, is about to enter a crucial phase of its economic development.

All going to plan, the next few years or so will see a lot of things happening that will take us forward.

Here are the big ones: Transmission Gully will be nearing completion; the Petone to Grenada link will be under way, easing Highway 2 congestion; a harbour-side cycleway from Petone to Ngauranga will possibly link with one on to Miramar; work will have begun on the extension to the airport runway, assuming it gets consent and funding; the Convention Centre and Film Museum will be bringing in new tourists.

There might even be a solution to congestion around the Basin Reserve, and plans for extra tunnels at The Terrace and Mt Victoria, along with public transport changes (you never know your luck).

Together, they promise to change our landscape for the good. And they are just the ones we know about.

I’m also expecting big things from the city’s urban development agency and the region’s economic development agency in introducing and promoting new ideas and projects. It promises to be an exciting time.

Crucially, in three years’ time we will also have had the first term of a new mayor and council, and we’ll be in a position to judge their effectiveness.

How some of these projects proceed and how well the general direction of the city and its economy is set will, to a large extent, depend on them.

To judge that progress we need to set some targets, and on Friday the Chamber will issue its Local Government Election Manifesto, which lays out for mayoral and council candidates the business community’s expectations ahead of the upcoming election.

The manifesto identifies four areas that are crucial to the growth of our economy:

Fiscal responsibility must be demonstrated through wiser spending, decreasing debt, and reducing the rates burden on business (which pays 46 per cent of the total) over time to match general rates, and capping all rates to the Local Government Cost Index. Also, transparency must be improved.

Wellington requires urgent infrastructural investment, specifically on transport, which requires council’s focus. More work needs to be done on the city’s resilience and preparedness for any shocks and stresses.

There needs to be an emphasis on economic development and growth, through the city council, regional council and Wreda. Opportunities for businesses and entrepreneurship, a place for highclass education, employment, tourism and liveability must be promoted.

Leadership must develop a coherent regional strategy with an emphasis on regional unity and a closer relationship with central government. Elected leaders need to get rid of the personality and patch-protection politics, locally and regionally. But the responsibility to grow Wellington doesn’t rest with local government alone. It’s down to all sectors, groups, and communities to get involved to get the city and region moving forward.

The manifesto is the most important document the chamber publishes because it goes to the heart of what creates the drive that makes the city and the region great.

We’ve sent a copy of it to each candidate and put them on notice that we expect them to have positions on the main points. We expect it to play a big part in our mayoral debate on September 8.

Later, during the coming term, we will hold the mayor and councillors to their answers, and the results will help inform voters for the 2019 election.

John Milford is chief executive of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. A Taranaki farming partnership is suing ANZ for $7.5 million after being sold controversial interest rate swap products.

Stephen and Sharon Coomey, the trustees of Eltham farm trusts Bushline Trust One and Two, are taking on ANZ in the High Court for interest rate products they were sold in about 2008.

The trustees are wanting to recover losses they alleged to have incurred as a result of entering into swap contracts.

Banks sold interest rate swap contracts to farmers between between 2005 and 2009, to help them manage their interest rate risk, but farmers found they were locked into higher costs instead.

In 2014 ANZ settled for $18.5m with customers who complained to the Commerce Commission about the crippling swaps.

The Bushline Trusts trustees are suing ANZ for $1.9m in swap payments and $5.6m for losses in farming operations due to ‘‘negligent mis-statement’’.

The trusts claim ANZ needed to exercise care and skill that a reasonable banker advising on swap transactions would exercise, including a duty to provide a full explanation as to the effect of, and alternatives to, swaps. The trustees claim the bank also had an ongoing duty to advise but say ANZ breached that duty.

The trial is set down for a 10-day hearing in February.

ANZ is defending a similar case brought by Cygnet Farms in a trial that started on Monday.

The Coomeys want ANZ to provide all versions it has of interest rate swaps brochures used New Zealand-wide in 2007 and 2008.

Justice Anne Hinton ordered ANZ to provide all versions of interest rate swaps brochures or presentation used or edited by an employee, ‘‘Mr Esquilant’’, in 2007 and 2008. She also ordered ANZ to provide all documents relating to client assessment and suitability for swaps between 2005 and 2013.

The manifesto is the most important document the chamber publishes.