High Court rolls chair of Watercare, just 3 months into job

When Auckland Council’s performance and appointments committee made the decision on a new chair for its giant subsidiary Watercare, it was behind closed doors.
The vote was taken with the mayor, his deputy and another councillor absent. A procedural amendment by councillor Maurice Williamson was passed, that the council’s independent Māori advisory panel Houkura says breached standing orders – but that rule change enabled engineer Geoff Hunt to win the role.
Hunt took up the chair of council-owned Watercare, New Zealand’s biggest water company, on July 4. Now, on application from the council’s own advisory board Houkura, the High Court has set aside Hunt’s appointment.
And on Tuesday morning, the committee will consider a new, confidential report on the matter.
Alastair Cameron, responsible for the council’s partnerships with council-controlled organisations, says the report seeks decisions regarding the criteria and process to appoint the Watercare Services Ltd chair.
“The High Court has set aside the appointment of the chair of the Watercare board and the council will make a fresh appointment to the Watercare board as soon as practicable,” he says.
Houkura, the independent Māori statutory board, had challenged the original June 25 decision, arguing it was procedurally unlawful.
In the application for judicial review, chair David Taipari said a panel had unanimously recommended a Māori candidate for the role, but the appointments committee has agreed Williamson’s amendment behind closed doors.
Williamson has spoken to Newsroom. “It was a perfectly legitimate thing to do,” he insists. “I got legal advice and procedure advice from the secretariat about what could I move, and at what point in the process did I move it to make sure it complied with standing orders. And then it got voted on and got passed.”
High Court Justice Michele Wilkinson-Smith made the ruling to set aside Hunt’s appointment. The court hasn’t yet published her judgment, while the parties seek certain redactions.
It’s not yet known how much Hunt was paid but, if he was paid in line with the $108,000 in fees his predecessor Margaret Devlin earned, then he would have earned up to $27,000 for 12 weeks’ part-time governance work.
In that time, he fronted up to the council’s direction and oversight committee to update them on Watercare’s performance – an update that Houkura deputy chair Tau Henare attempted to delay because of the ongoing court challenge to Hunt’s appointment.
Williamson said he knew Hunt and rated him highly. “I’ve had – I would say connections, not close connections. When I was minister of telecommunications, Geoff Hunt was with Kordia and other companies and involved in telecoms and so on.
“I’ve always had an enormously high respect for him, and was keen to see him get appointed to a job that I think he’s well suited for, and would, in my view, do a stunning job. It’s the reason I put the amendment forward and it was carried.”
Williamson says the role is critical to Auckland and Aucklanders.
“It’s vital. At a time when we’ve got a major reform of water and the whole policy package that the Government have come up with, Local Water Done Well, the chair and the whole board of Watercare and management and the way they handle things is vital to make sure we get it right.
“It’s got an ability to get tipped up and go all over the place, or to be done well, so we can be proud of it. It’s vital.”
Hunt confirmed to Newsroom he would throw his hat in the ring again, for the role of Watercare chair. He said whether he would be appointed was a matter entirely for council. “I’m just a bystander in the process.”
Minutes of Hunt’s oversight committee appearance in July disclosed that Watercare had, for the first time, spent more than $1 billion on infrastructure in the past financial year – but that wasn’t such a point of pride as Watercare’s accompanying press release implied.
The increased capital expenditure predominantly reflected settlement of Central Interceptor escalation claims and the millions spent (and still being spent) fixing the Ōrākei sewer collapse.
He revealed that Watercare had missed a number of performance targets, including its goal to procure 3 percent of goods and services through Māori-owned businesses – though its overall spend with Māori suppliers had increased to $30.6m.
It had failed residual chlorine disinfection testing in two of 38 distribution zones in June; missed its target to attend sewerage overflows in 60 minutes or less; failed to deliver 60 percent of projects in agreed timelines, and its staff had suffered more frequent injuries than Watercare standards required. That rate of 19.6 injuries per million hours worked had prompted the board to order an independent review.
“The Ōrākei main sewer break, delay in insurance revenue for the flood events and Central Interceptor escalation claim settlement have placed pressure on our cash position,” the briefing said.
This week, Hunt says he wants the chance to improve the company’s performance. “Quite simply, I think Watercare is a great organisation. Its performance can be improved.”
The Watercare annual report was published this week, and confirms Watercare’s progress has slowed in some areas of its Māori outcomes plan, due to prioritising water reforms instead. And budgets haven’t been met, because of the cost of Ōrākei sinkhole repairs and $77 million in unpaid insurance from the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.
Because the report went to print before the court’s decision was announced, it doesn’t mention that Hunt’s appointment has been set aside,
Instead, it describes his career in construction, operation, and maintenance of critical infrastructure. Over a 27-year period he has been chief executive of four successful New Zealand-based companies operating in these areas, it says.
He has worked in the UK and the USA and has been involved in project delivery and infrastructure maintenance services in Australia, the Pacific, Melanesia, and South-East Asia. He has worked in and held governance roles in both the government and private sectors and in industry bodies.
He is an Infrastructure Commission board member and director of two privately-owned businesses providing materials to the construction sector, and advising on business performance improvement.