Complaint against port ad thrown out

The Ports of Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

A complaint about an ad telling Len Brown and Auckland councillors to stop "violating" the city's harbour has been thrown out.

The contentious port expansion plans have sparked protests and an advertising campaign from the Stop Stealing Our Harbour group.

The Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint about a Stop Stealing Our Harbour newspaper ad.

"Why is your 9.5 per cent rates increase paying for expensive lawyers?" the ad asked readers.

"The Council has the power to stop wasting our rates before court action starts but has been hijacked by Ports of Auckland, who keep stealing our harbour," it continued.

The complainant, named as C. Levin, said the ad was misleading in two ways.

"Rates and rate increases do not directly fund the lawyers used to obtain the consents for port company's expansion," Levin told the Authority.

"The Council is expressly prohibited by law from stopping this 'wasteful exercise' and therefore has no power to do so," they added.

But the Authority said most Auckland ratepayers understood the council used money from any rates increase for council business, including legal fees for consents.

"While the recent rates increase would not have been earmarked by Auckland Council to 'directly' pay the legal fees of the lawyers to obtain consents for the project, the chairman said the statement did not reach the threshold to make the advertisement misleading," the Authority said in a newly-released decision.

The Authority also shot down the complaint stemming from the claim Auckland Council could not stop the Bledisloe Wharf development.

"Uncertainty about the council's power to halt the work has become the subject of some contention. Some lobbyists say...Auckland Council has the final say on the project while others disagree," the Authority said.

The Authority said because of this "ongoing debate" the ad was not misleading.