Councillor Hits Out At $250k Legal Bill For Southland Museum

Tuesday, 3 June 2025, 6:15 pm
Article: Matthew Rosenberg - Local Democracy Reporter

An Invercargill councillor says he is writing to the Auditor General about his council spending more than $200,000 on legal fees for its new museum.

Ian Pottinger has been a vocal critic of the council’s overspend on Te Unua Museum of Southland since budgeting issues came to light last year.

The new $87 million museum is set to open in late 2026 and will replace the city’s previous one which closed in 2018 due to earthquake risk.

At a May meeting, council staff were instructed to come back with extra information on some of the museum costs, including $249,519 spent on legal services.

A report prepared for a meeting on Tuesday said those costs were mainly for contracts to hire contractors, with mediation making up $40,250.

Pottinger said he’d talked with people in construction and law over the past two weeks and believed the council had racked up some 400 hours' worth of lawyers’ fees.

“My question is, why this project needed so much money in legal fees to prepare these contracts, because it doesn’t fit with everything I’ve read and heard,” Pottinger said.

He warned he was in the process of contacting the Office of the Auditor General to seek further investigation.

Chair Grant Dermody said the overall project also included the museum's storage facility and tuatara enclosure, with separate contracts in play.

But Pottinger did not accept that explanation, saying those elements were not included in the figures he was looking at.

He also unsuccessfully called a point of order against chair Dermody for interrupting his questioning, saying Dermody had a conflict as project lead for the museum.

Pottinger cited the code of conduct, which was not accepted.

The museum project started on the back of a 2022 decision by council, but budget issues didn't come to light until July 2024.

In October 2024, councillors voted to proceed with the original design despite cost implications.

In May, the council formalised an agreement with Waihōpai Rūnaka to collaborate on the experience within the museum.

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