Not selling the shares

by Helene Ritchie
Riding on a train in a little forest village in the Czech Republic, I emailed a Wellington City Councillor – one of the four who had stated their opposition to the sale of Wellington airport shares. That was early June.

Why did I do this?

Well, the Wellington City Council is always on my mind, and Wellington Airport has been on my mind since the first attempt to privatise it in the late eighties, by Richard Prebble, former Labour Minister of Transport, later Act leader. This was intended to be one of the first of many sales of state and local government public owned assets.

I was Chair of the Airport Authority at the time, and of all New Zealand Airport Authorities.

Through various means, I vigorously and successfully resisted his attempt. It was not that I had ever aspired to be ‘in charge’ of an airport. That was just where those in the Council majority had put me, hoping, according to insider information, that I would be politically neutered by it. Such was political life around the Council table of the time! But I was always a politician keen to ensure that strategic and significant public assets and utilities stayed in public hands.

On that fast efficient cheap train with wifi, I decided to write about the proposed sale of the Council’s shares in Wellington airport, to a dispirited hard working Labour councillor who opposed the sale. He emailed me back: “I’d say the decision is final”. I returned: “I don’t think this has quite ended”.

Prior to June, according to councillors, they had repeatedly received poor and confusing officer advice (backed up by vital legal advice withheld from councillors), around such matters as pecuniary conflict of interest, unwarranted threats of personal legal liability, highly variable financial advice and impact.

Then at the end of June, bad council procedure enabled a committee to replace the Council as the final arbiter, despite (refused) attempts by councillors to ensure a specific Council debate and decision.

The result was a decision to sell the Council’s 34% percent shareholding and to proceed to a request for sale proposals, reporting back to the Council in December.

Unions and the Labour Party had stepped up with sound evidence and reasons to oppose the sale of the shares.

Even Jason Boyes, CEO of Infratil which holds the majority of the shares (66%), had perhaps unwittingly added weight to the argument for the Council to keep its shares. He exclaimed mid June on Radio NZ that Infratil was a likely buyer of the Council’s shares, “because it is a really attractive investment”.

What started on a little train far away, became, once back in Aotearoa, The Post article which I wrote, urging the Council not to sell the shares for good reasons, and later, a further opinion piece here on Wellington Scoop.

Phil Kelliher added an excellent analysis, and Tom Hunt of The Post doggedly and professionally reported on every move by councillors.

Recently, and after the Council resolution to sell the shares, three of the ‘centre-right’ councillors changed their views, concerned about the frittering away of the sale funds in a proposed perpetual investment fund, and the Council’s debt. I congratulated them in another opinion piece.

And yesterday they signed a notice of motion to oppose the sale, thus ensuring along with one additional councillor, that a majority of councillors are now opposed to the sale of the shares.

There is every financial, transport, environmental reason why the Wellington City Council should hold on to the shares in this strategic public asset – Wellington airport is the (only) domestic hub for the country and despite some regulation of its monopoly status it is a cash cow with good and increasing dividend returns. The airport provides a vital transport and freight link between our two main islands (more vital today with seemingly unreliable ferries). With a seat around the Board table, climate change and environmental concerns will be taken there. Even with a minority shareholding, Council can and should have considerable influence.

So there you have it! Big business (Infratil) and the Unions have seen the importance of it all. ‘Right’ and the ‘Left’ and the in-between around the Council table have found common ground on a crucial vote for the city.

Councillors opposing the sale of the Council’s shares have put much time, energy, research, questions and discussion into reaching their decision. It only remains to congratulate the Council for what will be a good decision in the public interest of Wellington City and the country.

Helene Ritchie is a former deputy mayor of Wellington and former chair of the Wellington Airport Authority.