Tony Randle: Wellington City Councillor on the council u-turning on its decision to sell its stake in the Wellington Airport

There’s a feeling bad blood may linger in Wellington City Council. 

The council has voted to overturn its decision to sell the city's 34% stake in Wellington Airport after a process one councillor described as the “dirtiest politics” she's been involved with. 

Mayor Tory Whanau's suggesting the council will have to look at further cuts in the wake of this decision. 

Councillor Tony Randle told Mike Hosking he only agreed to sell the shares if it kept the millions of dollars as emergency funding. 

He says when they saw the Long Term Plan was going to spend this money, he withdrew support. 

Randle says it's been rough for everybody, and things have been said that will be hard to un-say, but the council needs to move on. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wellington City Council's planned to sell report shares that's been
voted down. They were going to do it now they're not.
The Council of Tony rendalls with us on this Tony morning,
good morning, your journey to the bote. You're a bit
here and there, won't you?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well? I was one of the counselors that initially supported
selling the shares, but we already have two hundred seventy
two million dollars of borroing capability and we only agree
to support the shares if they kept this emergency funding.
But in fact, when we saw that the long term
plan was going to spend this money essentially selling shares

(00:32):
to fund projects, we withdrew our support and signed the
notice of motion.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
How much bad will ill will is there now? As
a result of this As an exercise within the council.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
This is This has been a very rough exercise for everybody.
And yeah, there's there's relationships between broken and some things
have been said that are going to be difficult to unsay,
but we've made a democratic decision in the in the
council has to move on.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Does it feel as around the table as dysfunctional as
it looks from out here.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Sometimes it does, especially like at the meeting we had yesterday,
but a lot of time it doesn't. And the Council
on other areas is actually working pretty well together, especially
on the big issue, which is the water.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Well, that's encourage you. What about this Bordeaux bakery Thorndon Key?
What was the company that was moving yesterday? Quanovic? They're
out as well? I mean, and that looks like a
shambles as well. That does the council get this or not? Really?

Speaker 2 (01:38):
The council has still got to change track. We've got
all councilor's got a very angry letter from the owner
and he said that one of his closing thoughts was
that as Wellington is a city built on the hard
work of its people and its businesses, you as a
council should service that reality, not worth against it.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
A very good line.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, and I've got to say too, I mean, people
who know Wellington I have to say Wellington is in
deep trouble if an iconic, if or somewhat expensive French
bakery cannot survive in the CBD.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Couldn't agree more. Yeah, good on your Tony, go well
with it. God bless you doing God's work as a
counselor in the Mighty Capital. The reference was Kinovic. Yeah, Thornton,
Kiev Haven follow Kunovic. They're out. They just cannot do business.
Reconstruction of the roads continued, The cones doubled. Parking disappeared.
We had clients coming and saying they can't get a
car park. People have others waiting in their cars while

(02:37):
they come in trades. People can't get a park. The
whole thing's just a cluster. Well that's Wellington for you.
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