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Wellington City Council has voted to stop the controversial sale of its 34% share in the airport after a tense meeting.

Mayor Tory Whanau, who supported the sale, said she was disappointed with the outcome.

“However, I am just one vote around the council table and other councillors have voted for it not to proceed. I accept that. Now we must move on and look at other ways to address the challenges we face.”

Whanau warned this would involve some tough choices including making cuts to the council’s 10-year budget.

Selling the shares was a critical part of the council’s Long Term Plan which was recently signed off.

The sale has divided the council and cast its usual voting blocs to one side. Some of the strongest opposition to selling has come from Labour councillors, their local party arguing the airport is a strategic public asset critical to the city’s economy.

It has cost Whanau crucial support after three left-leaning councillors publicly withdrew their unconditional backing for her policies.

The council’s two mana whenua representatives have also accused some councillors of deliberately excluding iwi voices from being heard, jeopardising their relationship.

Taranaki Whānui chief executive Kara Puketapu-Dentice told councillors today the issue highlighted an absence of cohesive and collective leadership.

“Instead we see chaos, confusion and disunity.”

Labour councillor Nureddin Abdurahman’s Notice of Motion (NoM) to stop the sale was debated at a full council meeting this afternoon.

He said the airport was a strategic asset and when he stood for council, he did so with the promise to protect public ownership.

“Today I intend to keep that promise.”

The Wellington City Council has a 34% share in Wellington Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Green Party Māori ward councillor Nīkau Wi Neera said he opposed the sale but there was a “right way to win and there is a wrong way to win”.

He said the way the NoM was worded disenfranchised the council’s Māori partners.

“Iwi have been used as a football for the past month which is totally contrary to the mana-enhancing principles which underly our Tākai Here partnership.”

Tākai Here is a partnership agreement between mana whenua and the Wellington City Council, signed in 2022.

Two mana whenua representatives in this partnership have a seat on council committees with voting rights but not at full council meetings. They both support the sale.

Part of the NoM wanted to suspend any further involvement at the committee level regarding changes to the Long Term Plan.

The “unintended consequence” of this was excluding mana whenua from not just the airport issue if the decision was reversed but also potential changes to water services following new Government legislation.

Councillors did not support this part of the NoM when they voted today, meaning mana whenua will be involved in the process to stop the sale.

Wi Neera reflected on what he described as his “own failings” regarding the NoM.

He said misunderstandings could have been solved by the concerned parties getting in a room together.

“As Māori ward councillor, I represent the bridge between the institution and tangata whenua therefore the responsibility to facilitate this coming together ought to have been mine and I have failed.”

He asked for the NoM to be withdrawn.

Abdurahman acknowledged the pain caused and said he had tried to resolve any issues in “the most respectful manner possible”.

Whanau, who supports the sale, has said the council should be backing mana whenua and allowing them to have a consistent and meaningful seat at the decision-making table.

“After repeated and ignored attempts to work collaboratively on this issue, it is deeply upsetting that in an effort to achieve a certain political outcome, a few councillors have damaged our relationship with mana whenua.”

The book value of the council’s shareholding was $278m in June 2023; however, market value could be as high as $500m.

Council officials have said selling the shares would help solve two serious financial risks: the council’s $2.6 billion under-insurance problem and the lack of diversity in its investment portfolio.

The plan involved reinvesting the proceeds of the sale into a perpetual investment fund.

Officials previously advised that reversing the decision on the airport would require an amendment to the Long Term Plan, including consulting with the public again on options to sell or keep the shares, to be finalised by June 2025.

They said it could also result in the need to cut $600m from the council’s capital spending to create additional debt headroom to respond to insurance risks.