QLDC pays Aussie consultants $250,000 to listen to Wānaka residents

Analysis.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council has already been hammered in 2021 by a judicial review that found both the council and former Mayor Jim Boult were evasive and misleading in consultation with the Wānaka community over the future of their airport.

The result was a double blow against QLDC and the Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) not just through the $14 million Wanaka Airport lease being declared illegal, but because the case centred on how open and transparent they had been (not very) in communicating with the Wānaka community prior to the lease being granted.

It now appears that in a new round of Wānaka airport consultation the council’s answer is to spend $250,000 on some Australian consultants to do the same job.

The winning bid for the job went to Australian company Egis. This is how their own website describes the company.