Bid to stop asset sales fails
A last-ditch bid to stop the Christchurch City Council selling off assets has been lost.
On day two of the council’s crucial budget-setting meeting, the six Labour-aligned People’s Choice councillors tried to prevent the council from selling any companies or shares in companies it owns as part of its proposed $750 million capital release programme.
They were out-voted by Mayor Lianne Dalziel and the seven independent councillors.
Asset sales were first mooted by the council late last year when it was revealed its financial shortfall had ballooned to $1.2 billion. The issue has divided the council and the community, with 83 per cent of submissions received by the council on the proposed asset sales expressing opposition.
Speaking after the vote, People’s Choice spokesman Cr Andrew Turner said it was disappointing the council had voted to push ahead with its ‘‘asset sales agenda’’.
The People’s Choice councillors believed the council could raise the capital it needed without resorting to an asset sell-off, but the other councillors saw it differently.
In another blow to the People’s Choice councillors, they also lost their bid to stop City Care, Red Bus, Enable, Lancaster Park, Horncastle Arena, and councilowned off-street parking buildings from being taken off the council’s strategic asset list.
Removing the assets from the list makes it easier for the council to sell or privatise them should it chose to do so. If they had remained on the list the council would have needed to go through a special consultative procedure before selling them. It will have to do that if it wants to sell-down its shareholding in Christchurch International Airport Ltd, Lyttelton Port, and Orion, as they remain on the strategic asset list.
Cr Glenn Livingstone tried to convince councillors that if they took the assets off the list they would be short-cutting the democratic process and robbing people of the chance to have a say on what should happen with them.
‘‘Were we to proceed down the path of taking them off the list, thereby circumventing a usual part of the process, we would disempower our constituents. We at least owe our constituents the ability to have a say over what happens to them,’’ Livingstone argued.
But Dalziel defended the move, saying it was wrong to treat assets like electricity lines company Orion and maintenance contractor City Care in the same way.
‘‘It’s absolutely crystal clear [during the Long Term Plan process] that people could see what was strategic and what was not,’’ the mayor said.
The council had to look seriously at various options for releasing capital and could not expect the Government to bail it out.
‘‘This city was under-insured so why should the taxpayers pay the price for this council’s underinsurance and what we should be fronting up to as a city,’’ Dalziel said.
Cr Yani Johanson said it was fair to expect the Government to put more money in as it was the one who had ‘‘super-sized’’ the central city rebuild and imposed significant extra costs on the council.
Arguing against asset sales, he said delays to the anchor projects had given the council more financial head room and there was no need to sell off assets that were earning the council income.
‘‘Saying we’re not going to sell off our strategic assets unless we do more consultation isn’t the right message to give our community. Overwhelmingly the public have fed back to us they do not support the asset sale agenda we have put out as part of our financial strategy,’’ Johanson said.
We at least owe our constituents the ability to have a say over what happens to them.
Glenn Livingstone
Christchurch City councillor