Brown declined official advice over water troubles
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown decided against official advice when he sent a hard-line letter to the Wellington and Upper Hutt mayors over summer water troubles.
Brown wrote to Wellington mayor Tory Whanau and Upper Hutt mayor Wayne Guppy in January after what he said was a failure to provide him with information about their handling of Wellington’s water supply.
In the letter, Brown invoked section 257 of the Local Government Act 2002 to “require” the mayors to provide a raft of information about water management. But a briefing to Brown, obtained under the Official Information Act, showed that invoking the law was not the “preferred” approach of Department of Internal Affairs officials.
“I was concerned about the situation here in Wellington, and I didn’t think the councils were taking the issue seriously,” Brown said on Tuesday.
“I was concerned about the potential of stage four, or level four, water restrictions, which was looking quite likely at that time.”
Wellington had moved to level two water restrictions, meaning the use of sprinklers and irrigation systems was banned, and there was the risk of greater restrictions over the summer months, as council-controlled Wellington Water grappled with dropping water supplies.
The trouble, according to water regulator Taumata Arowai, which considered declaring a water emergency, was a result of record high water use, high-levels of water loss through failing pipes and a changing climate.
Brown had sought information from Wellington councils, but the response from the Wellington Water committee chairperson and Hutt City mayor Campbell Barry lacked, according to officials, a “comprehensive explanation” from both Whanau and Guppy.
A January 19 briefing to Brown shows he was advised of two options: send a letter to both the Wellington and Upper Hutt councils to directly request further information, or invoke section 257 and require the information.
Revealing the severity of Brown’s concerns about the councils was the threshold which had to be crossed in order for him to invoke this power.
Officials said he had to have “reasonable grounds that a problem relating to a local authority may exist” and this problem has not been “publicly acknowledged” or that the council “may be unable or unwilling to effectively address the problem”.
In this instance, officials said the “most likely grounds” for such action could be a belief the councils were unable or unwilling to fix the problem.
Making such a move was a necessary first step if the minister was to then consider appointing Crown observers to either council.
However, officials said the “preferred” option was to send a follow-up letter to the mayors, which could “express your disappointment” and request more information. Brown chose otherwise.
On Tuesday, Brown said he still had concerns about the councils’ management of water services and about a repeat of water restrictions next summer.
Taumata Arowai was “looking into” what might need to be done if such a situation occurred again, he said.