Which side are you on?

Dear Wellington city councillors and WCC staff,

We hear that you are considering selling treasured public land at Shelly Bay for luxury housing. We hear you are
being intensely lobbied by a property developer. We hear that some of you are saying you will support this
property developer, building houses for rich people on public land, because you support “mana whenua”.

Please hear what we think.

1. Young people live with crushingly expensive housing (thanks to the actions of earlier generations), face a
massive bill for run down public services such as water (thanks to the neglect of earlier generations) and face
the catastrophe of climate change and sea level rise (long ignored by earlier generations). So it is maddening to
watch a council in 2020 talking about giving public land to a rich developer to build houses for other already
rich people; and planning to do this right beside the sea, where young people will be left with much of the bill
for infrastructure (roads for instance) and then very likely the bill for remediation and compensation when the
sea level rises. This is what the “deal” offers young people: lose public land, gain no benefit from the housing
and then be left paying for this folly long after the property developers are dead.

2. Wellington needs more housing, the Labour Party councillors say. But we don’t need more of that kind of
housing: expensive housing for the rich. This is a mockery of the real and desperate need for housing that
many of us face. How dare you use the tragedy of the housing crisis to justify giving public land and subsidies to
rich people housing? Have you forgotten what party you belong to?

3. But supporting the property developer is actually supporting “mana whenua”, some councillors say. However,
you know that mana whenua are deeply divided about the sale of Shelly Bay. You should know that at the
PNBST 2016 AGM members voted unanimously that trustees immediately stop negotiations with Ian Cassels –
before their land was sold anyway. The dispute is going to court next year. Why would you make decisions pre-
empting this court challenge and claim to be supporting iwi? Why would you stop them making their own,
vastly less selfish plans for Shelly Bay, such as the national heritage park proposal? (Remember that Pania
Newton’s fight at Ihumātao has involved divided iwi as well; these are politics as old as colonial New Zealand.)

4. Wellington has a grand tradition of property developers dividing iwi to get their hands on cheap land. We are
still trying to right the wrongs of Edward Wakefield in the 1840s. Now the 2020’s property developer claims that
the Shelly Bay luxury housing development would be a “partnership” with iwi. The iwi partnership is cosmetic, a
token add-on to help the property developer get his way. How dare anyone use the tragedy of Māori inequality
and the need for economic development as spin to get council support for a Pākehā property developer?

5. We hear that the council officers are backing the property developer and steering councillors to sell him the
public land. If this is true, shame on you. We hear there is talk in the council that the property developer might
sue the council if he doesn’t get his way. If so, that's disgusting. Does this sound like someone working for the
common good? Anyone who is influenced by this sort of threat shouldn’t work in a public organisation. You are
there for the public.

6. We wonder if you don’t realise how strongly Wellington people feel about Shelly Bay: the public, the majority,
the people you are supposed to represent. If you vote in favour of the stitched up sale and lease of public land
to the property developer on November 11, the issue is not going away. You will simply be making another mess
that young people will have to solve. Think Ihumātao. You would be putting Wellington on the map – but not as
you intend.

7. Young people can’t threaten you with legal action like the property developer. We don’t have our own PR
company like the property developer. But we can threaten you with democracy and with a determination to
fight injustice. Which side are you on? What side of history do you want to be on?

Contact: Hannah Higgison / saveshellybay@gmail.com