Hawke’s Bay Regional Council elected to defer debt repayments relating to water science charges accrued by Water Holdings Hawke’s Bay Ltd at a meeting held on Wednesday at the council offices.
Councillors voted five to four to defer debt collection of the outstanding amount until the end of the financial year. The outstanding amount is $259,805 for the past two years and $157,860 for the 2022-2023 year.
The decision was roundly criticised by Central Hawke’s Bay environmental group Wise Water Use.
“That was the wrong decision. It sends a message to rate payers that if you can’t pay your debts to the council and you’ve got mates around the table, come and see us and we’ll push something through to get your debt deferred,” said spokesperson Trevor Le Lievre.
The Regional Council will need to borrow money, with interest, to cover the budget shortfall, meaning ratepayers will effectively subsidise the company he says.
About 30 people gathered outside the council building with placards opposing the deferral.
The charges owed are for costs incurred by the council to do water monitoring on the catchment, 35% of which are passed to the consent holder.
Water Holdings Hawke’s Bay Ltd (WHHB) holds the consents for the controversial Ruataniwha dam. They had hoped all charges would be deferred until the dam could be built, but opposition to the dam has not gone away. WHHB has six shareholders, all farmers and businessmen from Central Hawke’s Bay.
HBRC chief executive James Palmer said at the meeting that about $27 million had been spent by the council and the crown developing the intellectual property and consents to date.
Debate about the proposed damn and irrigation scheme has gone on for years and the plans were ultimately canned in 2017 by a supreme court.
In the meeting Regional Council chair Rick Barker, who voted against the deferral, said:
“If we do not take this matter up, we are making a statement to every ratepayer, that if you’ve got a story to tell about why you think you’ve been unfairly treated, unfairly done by, you can default on your payment because we’ve set a precedent. Who’s going to pay their rates in a situation if we give up on this?”
Hinewai Ormsby, Neil Kirton and Martin Williams also voted against the deferral – a decision Le Lievre said they should be congratulated for.
“Those water barons did their due diligence and bought their consents for $100,000. They knew the science charges were coming up annually and didn’t dispute that. They paid them the first year 2018, and in the second year CHBDC picked up the bill and they haven’t paid since. In our opinion they have no intention of paying those charges,” he said.
There appeared to be differences of opinion among mana whenua too.
Co-chair of the Regional Council planning committee Api Tapine said Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust wanted more time to be consulted by WHHB and supported the deferral, while Michelle McIlroy, co-chair of the māori committee said Ngāti Kahungunu remain opposed to the Ruataniwha dam, as did others.
“I spoke to the mana whenua, Ngāti Pouwharekura of the Makaroro last night and they continue to not support the Ruataniwha dam proposal or consideration of extension. In their words: kāore, kāore, kāore.”
McIlroy also called into question the business acumen of the consent holders, noting that asking for a deferral on science charges should “ring alarm bells” for rate payers and tax payers who will be footing 65% of that.
Majority WHHB shareholder Tim Gilbertson reportedly handed $100 in cash to Palmer at the end of the meeting and was visibly angry after councillors questioned why one outstanding debt of $82 had not been paid.
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Timmy Drops $100 on the Table ,How about he drops the balance of what owes
what a joke.
Exactly, Gren.
The smug arrogance of WHHB members at the meeting was not surprising. But what was most disappointing was the weak decision-making and pandering to the privileged few by 5 of our Regional councillors when no such leniency or preferential treatment is shown to ordinary ratepayers!
What a croc, damn the dam which is against all reason, financially and otherwise. No farmer wants to pay the high cost of water from such a mega project, and it is harmful to our environment. I always pay my bills early and don’t even wait until the due date. They got these consents for pennies compared to what we, the ratepayers, have already been bilked. And now we are bilked again. What collateral was offered to us by these ‘businessmen’?? Come down on them hard !!
What i’d like to know is the argument for deferment. When public money is involved, it should be very difficult to make a substantive case to transfer public money into the hands of individuals.
Their debt – their payment — why on earth should they be allowed to defer payment – anybody else incurring debts either pays or winds up with the debt collectors. They made a choice and have to suffer the consequences. If not paid call in the collectors and list it on all the relevant parties credit records
The regional rates has gone up with 12% this year and it goes up and up. It live in town so I should pay regional rates at because the Hastings council rates are high as well and going up each year as well
Financially they are incompetent
WHHB was presumably setup to purchase the 27m of intellectual property for 100k hoping for a massive windfall should the scheme get resurrected. Seems to me that this fire sale should have had some condition that the assets return to HBRC should WHHB default on their financial obligations.
At least we now have 4 councillors who voted against deferral rather than just 1 a couple of years ago (https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422981/failed-ruataniwha-dam-still-causing-contention-as-council-agrees-to-relieve-financial-stress-of-backers).
Got their mates around the table that’s for sure. If you don’t happen to pay you rates on the due time, they automatically clobber you with a 10% Penalty No if or buts!!!
Not good! Bad lot!
HBRIC demonstrated their complete lack of economic credibility years ago, and had consultants pull the wool over the councillors’ eyes. The dam was never going to make economic sense, as I was able to demonstrate at the time, on the back of an envelope.
It still doesn’t make any economic sense. Yet we have a handful of CHB farmers trying again to have everyone else pay for delivering them water so they can continue to farm irresponsibly.
This group presumably went into this new venture with their eyes open, although it ought to have been obvious that the economics would never work. Yet again it demonstrates their incompetence in basic economics.
Presumably the Regional Council will now allow anyone with a temporarily dormant resource consent to defer paying the appropriate charges. Ha ! Some chance of that !
Excellent illustration as to who on the current Regional Council should be voted out in the forthcoming elections.
Vote out the pro dam candidates in the next HBRC election.
Voting for Councillors for HBRC for the 2022-25 period opens in a matter of days. The decision as to whether to defer payment of the science charges owed by Water Holding HB (already significantly in arrears) should have been deferred until after the Election. This would have allowed the Council, which is going to be in place for the next three years, to make the decision, which seems more appropriate than ramming the decision through just prior to the change. I also believe that HBRC ratepayers should have been advised that this (controversial) issue was coming up and, thereby, been given time to make their views heard. I wonder why neither of these things happened?
Cheers Vanessa good comments. As a ratepayer I can only say that this debt is to the HBRC and should be paid according to the rules around debt.. (just like our rates!! – administrative) . It’s a bit uncertain as to why the matter of arrears was before the Council at all, though you can read the rationale for this in the attachment paper for last Wednesday’s meeting… You may already know how to access, but: go to HBRC website; scroll down to ‘Meetings’; open and click on ‘Agenda’ for Regional Coundil 31 August – ‘ you can choose PDF or HTML and access the agenda and supporting items…. This one was a ‘late item’, but really useful to understand the background to this item!
On your second point – absolutely agree! So many of us would have something to say!!! Thing is, I think some (4) councillors thought it would not be an issue: ‘there’s a debt: pay up’ ! As many have said, you and I would not get the opportunity to defer our rate payment!!!! –
Kia ora. This Ruataniwha business is like the thing that wouldn’t die: that is, a zombie monstrosity. The best solution is to drive a stake through its heart metaphorically, by insisting outstanding debt is paid, and if not, calling in the bailiffs.
I agree with comments above and did express elsewhere (HBRC Facebook) my absolute opposition to deferring this debt. Anyone who has an hour of their life to spare should watch the video of this meeting and weep! A shout out to the 3 who opposed strongly (and Michelle McIlroy, Chair Maori Committee): and a wee wave to Martin Williams who agreed, but thought there could be some sort of accommodation, but got there in the end!….. I was appalled at the dithering of the 5 ‘supports’ and their lack of business nous! On what possible grounds could they consider that ‘a bit more time’ would provide the opportunity to ‘discuss’? There is nothing to discuss! WHHB paid $100k for $20m+ worth of IP & geotech reports. At the time, I heard one of the players say “It’s like winning Lotto” Well, they have just won another division of Lotto!!!
For 5 councillors to infer that the consents were compromised because of DOCs caveat, demonstrates an alarming lack of research and understanding of the history of this issue before dawdling to a vote.
Be very aware!!! These consents lapse in 2024. I understand the next ask from WHHB is to extend the consents until 2030/31. This must not be agreed!
A reminder that we need to make sure before voting any candidate on to the Regional Council, that they have the ability to understand an issue; to do the appropriate background research; and actually have the ability to make a decision in the best environmental interests of our region. (and stand by it!)
Good korero and comments thus far. Was hoping that the HBRC would vote that the outstanding charges be paid before the consent expiry date is extended – suppose they can still do that? I think what WHHB is hoping for is to extend the consents until after next year’s election, when they will hope for a National led government to come into power, which will either amend the Conservation Act or pass a member’s bill to allow the dam to go ahead. This Nat led government will then re-institute the Irrigation Acceleration Fund to fund the building of the dam for the “national interest” in view of dire climate change predictions and “water security”. This is my prediction, and I’ll put up a bottle of good red or scotch on this! Any takers?
Tough on the superintendents with these ongoing increases because of this ridiculous decision