Former councillor John Robson speaks at Tauranga City Council meeting. Video / Tauranga City Council
Former minister Anne Tolley has clashed with an ex-Tauranga councillor who accused the commission she leads of “lying”, “misleading” people, and not sharing his financial literacy “gift”.
Tolley responded to former Tauranga City Council mayoral candidate John Robson that she found it “ironic to be lectured on good governance by a member of the council that was dismissed by... a government because they were not good governors”.
The exchange came as Robson spoke in a council meeting about funding the city’s $306.3 million civic precinct.
The commission is considering borrowing $151.5m for the CBD precinct, Te Manawataki o Te Papa, via a Crown-owned entity that would take the debt off the council’s balance sheet as ratepayers paid it back via levies. The alternative was a rates-funded loan.
“People do not like being lied to and... lying by omission is still lying, paltering is lying - it’s an attempt to deceive people. Lying by obfuscation is no better, muddying things up in such a way that people aren’t clear what decision is in front of them.”
Robson said he was a consultant and had created his own Excel spreadsheet of the submissions for analysis “because as you know, it’s a skillset I have”.
“I’m also financially literate which I remember the DIA [Department of Internal Affairs] saying wasn’t a gift that was shared by the commissioners... but let’s move on.”
He continued a metaphor about a lamp post and a drunk to criticise the precinct project, and talked about the council withholding information.
Robson referred to comments by an unnamed supporter of Te Manawataki o Te Papa who was “really, really, really upset with those terrible self-serving councillors, those narcissist useless councillors that brought the city to the state it’s in, right”.
As he continued, Tolley interjected, “Have you finished?”
Robson was not. “That person is embarrassed,” he said. “They feel that you’ve insulted them by producing a piece of work that is misleading, that is based on fear, that - if you like - lacks integrity. That’s from a supporter of Te Manawataki o Te Papa. I couldn’t agree with them more.”
Former Tauranga City councillor John Robson, pictured at a meeting in August. Photo / Alex Cairns
“Thank you very much,” responded Tolley, who spent almost two decades in Parliament.
“I do find it ironic to be lectured on good governance by a member of the council that was dismissed by... a government because they were not good governors, so thank you very much”.
Robson: “And that minister was sacked by the people of New Zealand this weekend.”
Robson left his seat, laughing, and replied, “cause you’re gone”, knocked on the table and walked away.
Earlier in the meeting, former mayor Greg Brownless questioned whether the commission would “state clearly who’s going to pay for this - ratepayer on rates or ratepayers via separate payment?”
“I think ratepayers have copped enough over the last few years with rates up 53 per cent on average...”
Former Tauranga Mayor Greg Brownless, pictured in 2019. Photo / Andrew Warner
Brownless said he wanted transparency from the commissioners about using the Crown’s Infrastructure Funding and Financing Act (IFF) pathway as many people “don’t seem to comprehend that [it is] they who will still be doing the paying”.
He described it as “smoke and mirrors” and said they should call the deal “what it really is, in my opinion, which is a rates increase”.
Brownless said he was concerned about the IFF generally and did not think the civic precinct project justified using it.
Submitter Chudleigh Haggett said ratepayers could not afford “these grandiose plans”.
The council having a meeting about funding options “is like asking somebody whether they want to be shot or hung without anybody asking them ‘do they want to die?’,” he said.
He said the CBD was “collapsing” and “none of the touchy, feely projects around town have done anything except spend ratepayers’ money and this is just another disaster”.
Haggett said he believed the civic precinct project would bring the council closer to bankruptcy and referenced rate rises.
“The 40 per cent of people on fixed income will simply have to move, and with them goes most of the city and its experience, so I’m concerned, Madam Chair, this is a project too far.”
Julie Andrews said she supported rates funding because she believed the IFF route would be more expensive.
Sustainable Bay of Plenty’s Glen Crowther described consultation on the project as “not very informative”.
“The initial consultation, which was given quite a lot of detail around one of the options and not a lot around another option, was very misleading...” Crowther said.
The trust did not think the process was transparent and it believed the IFF would cost more, he said.
Tolley said more details, such as a breakdown of debt levels would be better known when the matter came back for council deliberations.
That meeting and a decision is expected on November 6.
Correction: This article has been corrected to make clear that John Robson used the word paltering, not faltering.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
