Nick Mills: The evidence validating my Tiaki Wai question to Andrew Little

Publish Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2026, 10:16am

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OPINION:

On Tuesday's programme, Wellington Mayor Andrew Little and I had a pretty animated discussion about Tiaki Wai — and one question in particular: Could Wellington have sought another year before Tiaki Wai had to be established?

I said I had been told that a Council officer had explained to councillors that, legally, there was a mechanism to seek an extension under exceptional circumstances.

Andrew Little strongly pushed back. He challenged me to produce the evidence.

"I don't believe that happened, and you said you can get an affidavit to say it did happen ... so let's have the affidavit" Little said.

He challenged me to produce the evidence, in an affidavit.

Well, I'm going to go one better, and produce the actual proof.

In the City Council's City Strategy and Delivery Committee Meeting on May 28 this year, at 9:52am, the City Council's Chief Advisor Customer and Community, Margo Ray, told the Mayor and Councillors "So the legislation does allow for an amendment to the Water Services Plan to be made."

"An amended plan needs to be provided to the Minister, and that can only be done in 'exceptional circumstances'" Ray said.

Little was in the meeting, but he told me on Tuesday he never heard a Council representative say that.

I produced the evidence after the show to the Mayor's office, which has since sent me a statement.

“At no point was the threshold met for ‘exceptional circumstances’ under the Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Act 2024. Anyone suggesting it was a possibility is clutching at straws.” Little said in a statement.

Okay. But hang on.

That's not quite the same argument we were having yesterday.

The question wasn't whether Andrew Little personally believed the 'exceptional circumstances' threshold had been met.

The question was: was there a legal avenue available to seek more time?

And the council's own officer appeared to say there was.

Now we get to the really important question: should Wellington have tried?

Because if ever there was an argument for exceptional circumstances, surely Wellington had one worth putting forward.

We had the Moa Point disaster. We were still waiting for important information about exactly what had gone wrong.

Amalgamation looms.

And the price.

We were setting up an entirely new water organisation involving billions of dollars of infrastructure and enormous consequences for ratepayers.

Maybe the Government would have said no.