Andrea Vance reports in The Post today on the horribly, messily complicated sale (or not) of Wellington City Council’s airport shares.

“Whilst the Council’s complete dysfunction is widely understood, these new developments, as reported by Vance, are deeply disturbing” said Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross.

“Vance reports that the two unelected mana whenua representatives, who do not sit on the full council where the vote will take place, are threatening to pull out of an iwi-council partnership over the vote. This is a blatant attempt to strong-arm elected representatives with the threat of feigned offence if the Council does not vote the ‘right’ way.

“But even worse, Vance reports that representative Holden Hohaia has a vested interest in the outcome as his iwi has aspirations in buying the shares. That should automatically disqualify him from having any input into the process or deliberations. It is therefore fortunate that he has no actual vote on the sale at the full Council. However, if Vance is correct, his threats are inappropriate and call into question the wisdom of having unelected representatives on councils or council committees.”

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