Nick Mills: Wellington Water has fleeced the capital's ratepayers

OPINION

We were warned a report was coming out on Wellington Water.

Not even people in the media or on our councils thought the report was going to be this scathing. There is a lot of shock around Wellington right now.

And we’ve always suspected it, but now we know just how bad Wellington Water has been managing our pipes and our money.

The entire report can be summed up in two lines.

The first; we are being fleeced.

The second; the management of Wellington Water has sat back and allowed it to happen.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks at b.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
We did warn you the report card was coming out
on Wellington Water and here it is.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
D D D D D D.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
If there was ease, it would be e e e
ee nothing good on this report. You're not getting to
get up to the next class in your classroom with
this report. Not even people in the media thought the
report was going to be the scathing but here it is,
and there's a lot of shock and despair and anger

(00:44):
around the capitol right now. We've always suspected it, but
now we know just how bad Wellington Water has been
managing our pipes. And the entire report can be summed
up in two lines. The first line, we have been fleeced.

(01:07):
That means take an advantage of the second the management
of Wellington Water has sat back and allowed this to happen.
The headline out of the rape out of this is
the ratepayers in our region are going to be paining

(01:29):
and have been paying. They're paying nearly three times more
for unplanned pipe maintenance compared to other cities like Hamilton
and christ Church, three times more, and no one seemed
to bat an Island. Wayne Guppy did come out a

(01:50):
few months ago and have a crack. He's been the
only one we've heard have a crack. Contractors have been
creaming it because the management of Wellington Water is clearly
just pardon the punds, spraying the money around like it's
wa water when we have got water, while our rate
skyrocket almost solely because of the money that's kept needed

(02:16):
to invest in water. And the crazy thing is we
don't know how much this fleecing has cost us. Here's
Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett talking to Ryan Bridge yesterday.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
How much do you reckon it's cost rate payers the whole.

Speaker 4 (02:35):
We don't know that and there will be huge money
involved in investigating that. All we can do is show
that where the system is deficient, where things have not
worked properly for years, and fix it. And the fixing
fixing is the important thing here.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
But are you sure? I mean I read somewhere that
it was three times what you should have paid for pipes?
Is that right? How much of you spend on pipes?
You know? Can we not work back? I think yeah,
we're talking millions, aren't we?

Speaker 4 (03:06):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Absolutely, yeah, Look it's a huge cost.

Speaker 4 (03:10):
I couldn't begin to put a quantity on it.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
I'm sorry, Nick, I want to know. I'm sorry, I
really want to know how much it's cost us. And
if that report's going to cost a lot of money,
that's a little bit of hiding it. Oh well, we've
been ripped off. We won't look at that. Let's plan
for the future. The putting right that counts. This is
not Lvi Martin, and it's not a TV. This is

(03:36):
me and you paying our rates, paying our huge rates
and knowing that the money's been ripped off by organizations
because they put bills in three times what they should
be putting them in for Why because someone allowed them
And that's someone as well. Into water and that's someone

(03:59):
there is no one looking after it and taking care
of it and making sure that it's right for me,
for you, for our parents, for our children. It's just
cost cost cost cost cost.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Water, water, water water.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
But behind we haven't spent the money, we haven't invested
the money. We haven't done this, we haven't done that,
but we kep paying money out And this even alleged
case of fraud has been found and with the police
now investigating the presupposed theft of thousands of dollars, and
at the center of all of this is Wellington's War

(04:34):
Water's chairman, Nick Leggett, who has apologized and now is
pausing for thought. I'm sorry, Nick. An apology for hurting
my back pocket, for costing me so much money. An
apology doesn't wash with me. He's taking time to say

(04:55):
whether he stays in the job. Leggot amidst Wellington Water
has failed to deliver value for money and acknowledged that
concerns raised by staff and council shareholders were not listen
too sooner. But my question, or one of my many
many questions over this particular subject, is an apology enough Now.

(05:18):
I'm not going to call for Nick Leggett to resign today.
It's Nick Leggot's decision. I want the water to settle.
Pardon the second part. He's only been in the position
for less than two years, and I know a lot
will call for his head, but let's get to the
bottom of it before we do that. Some are calling

(05:39):
for his head. Upper Hut Maya Wayne Guppy has been
direct saying heads have got to go. Por Mayor Anita
Baker has pushed back, calling for talk of resign resignations
absolutely stupid and praising Leggott and the new CEO Pat
Doherty for driving changes. If they are driving changes, why
are we not seeing it? Why is it not on

(06:00):
the report that they all these are history or history
right now we've got it all sorted out. There's nothing
about that in the report. This has been happening for years.
We've been fleeced for years. Well into me Tori Founa,
who's weighed in demanding answers from the board and leadership
about how the situation was allowed to develop over such

(06:22):
a long period of time. Eighteen months you've been in
that position, Tory. Did you ask any questions? Did you
raise any concerns? Did you jump up and down and
say my ratepayers are paying too much? Where's the problem?
I mean, she's right in one thing. How can this happen?

(06:44):
What other organization pays bills three times more expensive than
anyone else without noticing? Why was there no deep dive
earlier than now? We still don't even know what the costs.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
Was.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
We don't know how much we've spent that we shouldn't
have spent. We've had issues with Wellington Water for years.
Why are we only finding it now. It's as bad
as it really is. Wellington Water has been in the
headlines constantly. Remember the fluoridation debate. It was a debacle.
It wasn't a debate or the fifty one million budget

(07:23):
era that slipped through the cracks. This is an organization
completely dysfunctional and the Prime Minister, he said as much yesterday.

Speaker 5 (07:33):
Wellington Water is a total basket case has been for
some time. It's not a proper CCO like we see
in other parts of the country. It's a rather unique
corruption that's been built up over a number of years.
And the reality is that they need to professionalize the
management of the water assets here in this region.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
A unique corruption, he said. Wow, And let's not forget
the bigger picture here me you Wellingtonians are paying the
price for these failures. Look at your rate bill. We
are paying for it and have been paying and continually

(08:13):
going to be paying for it. People are leaving the
city because they cannot afford to pay their rates. Why
because someone's getting paid three times more than they damn
well should fix a pipe out the front of your house.
I wonder how those people are feeling today when they're
sitting in Marlborough, or sitting over the wire wrapper looking
at or Capiti looking at Weartington and thinking, oh my gosh,

(08:36):
this is a mammoth scandal.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news talks It'd Be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio