How to build ratepayer's confidence
- Andrea Compton
- Aug 3
- 3 min read
Credit: Scoop Article by Andrea Compton 10 March 2025
Long-suspected issues with Wellington Water have finally been brought to light – and accusatory fingers are now being pointed by those who are arguably the most culpable through their inability to call this agency to account.
“We weren’t to know”, our region’s mayors have said. “We’ve been trying for two years to fix Wellington Water”. But this is just not good enough. How long do you need?
Regardless of the don’t-blame-me hand-wringing, and that a few brave councillors have repeatedly been silenced as agitators, the issue of Wellington Water – and the tens of millions of ratepayers’ money that’s been flushed away in a regime of unchecked automatic invoice payments and a system geared towards over-charging – just amplifies the woes of a city council struggling to stay afloat.
Now, Wellington City Council officers are presenting councillors with options for the new water reforms, which may or may not represent effective water management, and these will soon be available for public consultation.
The unfortunate aspect is the insufficient understanding of events, systemic profligacy, the decisions made, the absence of governance, and more critically, the lessons that need to be learned from the Wellington Water debacle.
The scathing report on water management confirmed that this Council lacks control, understanding, or oversight of such crucial infrastructure for our city. That lack of ability has allowed money that could have been used for many other services in Wellington to literally go down the drain.
Unfortunately, many of our councillors and regional mayors appear unwilling to understand how critical the next move is for our city. We run the risk of making decisions that will have significant impacts and ramifications for Wellingtonian ratepayers for years to come.
While it rocks everyone’s confidence in our elected and appointed public officials, we all need to understand how this came about.
Yes, fingers do need to be pointed and blame apportioned so that people can make the right decision and fall on their sword. This allows for others, more qualified and adept, to step into the role and provide Wellington with the leadership it deserves. The erosion of Wellingtonians’ confidence must be actively repaired.
For this Council to start restoring confidence in its ratepayers, the best choice for water reform is to “go it alone”.
The go-it-alone approach will give Wellington City Council full accountability and allow it to steer the organisation directly and intentionally, rather than at arm’s length as it does now.
A go-it-alone approach enables the Wellington City Council to enforce programme management across the organisations concerning water, roads, and lighting. It allows the council to access valuable real-time reporting on performance and key deliverables that hold the organisation answerable to the ratepayer.
Going it alone enables the Wellington City Council to boost efficiencies via enhanced procurement, more streamlined practices, and, most importantly, accountability can be restored.
Transitioning to a regional model and merging the regional councils’ water assets and liabilities would continue to maintain the arms-length nature of the current arrangement, thereby diminishing accountability and opening up to more wastage.
A “consumer charter” within a regional outsourced model will not restore ratepayer confidence. It may very well further erode the little confidence that remains.
In light of this, Wellington City councillors and the mayor must engage actively in turning this situation around through strong governance and support. Considering a return to a model that operates at “arm’s length” is bound to repeat the recent history.
Wellington City needs to lead the way for the other councils. As the nation’s capital city, we need to be the arbiter of leadership and good decision-making and not continue to be part of the status quo.
Only when the new stand-alone water entity can be trusted to deliver value for money for the ratepayers, can bringing in other councils even be considered.
My message to the current council is that no-one is coming to save us. But first and foremost, we need move away from party politics that has seen unqualified and inexperienced people elected to the governance table.
Andrea Compton is a candidate for the Northern Ward in the 2025 Election. She is a Chartered Accountant, with a strong background in infrastructure and finance.
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