Showdown at the Queenstown Memorial Hall

Analysis.

It was always going to be interesting, but the worry was that the first formal debate of the local QLDC mayoral election campaign might be interesting but dull.

We need not have worried - it was interesting and very revealing. Even entertaining at times.

Former TV journalist Katie Bradford did a great job politely, but firmly, floating all of the thorny issues that confront our district. Lakeview, the very poor council trust survey, the sewage crisis, over-development, over-tourism, infrastructure, regional deals, the water CCO  - it was all there, out on the stage, for all to see.

You could argue it was all of the district's dirty laundry - up for debate.

But there was no sense of muck-raking - these were real issues to be confronted. And they were confronted.

The audience was something for Queenstown to be proud of -  smart, polite, open minded.

Glyn Lewers might not have realised the significance his opening remarks failing to receive any applause - until his four competitors on stage all received some measure of audience approval.  His "strong family man facing opportunities not challenges" angle did not fall on fertile ground.

John Glover got applause for his "listen to the community, listen to the councillors" line.

John Glover (right) - "listen to the community."

Darren Rewi also received applause for his "the role of the mayor is to enable and empower the councillors who are the voice of the community - if we don't do that then we get nowhere."

Darren Rewi - "enable and empower the councillors."

Nik Kiddle also gained an audible seal of approval for his "root and branch reform can't come from the incumbent, we need a new start where elected representatives have more power than the staff." 

Nik Kiddle wants a cap on short term visitor accommodation.

Mayor Lewers must have started to dread the steady line up of thorny issues that Katie Bradford served up to the attentive audience. She was more journalist than presenter - having done her homework and sensing blood.

On housing, Nik Kiddle revealed his plan to cap the number of short term let/AirBNB properties - even suggesting that a limited number of short term accommodation licences could be traded much in the way that taxi licences used to have a high price value.

Glyn Lewers retreated to his tried and tested position that he "did not have the levers to control short term accommodation" and he was "not going to ban AirBnB."

Katie Bradford then asked if the candidates would consider a moratorium on new development until infrastructure was fixed. Even the question got a strong murmur of approval from the audience.

John Glover was clear in his answer. "Every time we build a new house we are going backwards."

Darren Rewi backed intensification over sprawl.

Glyn Lewers simply invoked the gospel of his mentor Jim Boult - "we can't stop growth."

Katie Bradford then took it up a notch with transparency.

John Glover said that his biggest disappointment over transparency was that nobody at QLDC had ever "said sorry" for the sewage crisis. "The community is owed an apology."

Nik Kiddle said the community needed to gain confidence and trust around water testing - "are we seeing the real results, are we passing water quality standards?"

Darren Rewi was even stronger.  "It's one of our community's greatest sins. 25 Olympic swimming pools of crap going into the Clutha River."

Mayor Lewers then blamed councillors for the sewage crisis saying "they all knew about the sewage problem back in 2019 and did nothing.

But then Gyn Lewers made what appeared to be the biggest mistake of the evening.

Within sixty seconds Glyn Lewers said it was CEO Mike Theelen's decision to discharge sewage into the river and he "was not happy with the CEO's decision." The mayor then pivoted without hesitation to saying that Queenstown airport's bird strike risk was the real crisis and CEO Theelen had saved the community from the air crash risk. "It was the only option." 

It was hard to reconcile the two statements.

Then Lakeview was introduced to the candidates.

"I wasn't in the room when the decision was made" said Lewers.

He failed to address Katie Bradford's unavoidable out-of-town logic that getting $25 million back on a $75 million spend "did not sound like a good deal." Mayor Lewers said that only $55 million had been spent - contradicting his Facebook post only days ago that quantified the Lakeview spend as "$66 million plus $6 million yet to be spent."

In the end, apparently accepting that the deal was not a pinnacle of business acumen, Glyn Lewers told the audience that Lakeview was not about money and the project would give Queenstown "a suite of housing typologies, a vibrant CBD and even hot pools."

John Glover then delivered the coup de grâce when he was asked for his view of the Lakeview deal - was it a good deal? 

"I can't tell you because it's a secret."

The audience loved that.

The 300 strong audience appreciated the occasional spark of humour

Nik Kiddle said that Lakeview was the single biggest liability to sit on the council's books and called for resources to be put into finding out what went so wrong - and when. "I don't think kicking the tyres will do the trick. We'll need to pop the hood on this one."

On economic diversification and economic development  most of the candidates agreed that the QLDC had failed to do a decent job. Darren Rewi summed it up.

"Take it away from council - otherwise they'll just wander and ponder for the next ten years. Let people who know how to do it get on with the job."

On fast track consents Glyn Lewers broke the news to a delighted audience that the proposed Fernhill tramway and conference centre/subdivision had just hours earlier lost their fast track consent claiming that as an example of the QLDC "pushing back" against Government pressure. 

He lost ground though when Katie Bradford asked "where are the women mayoral candidates onstage?"

The mayor appeared to struggle with the word "women" instead using "ladies" and "females" - and he did not really recover from that point onwards. References were made to women councillors being bullied at council meetings by the other candidates.

Darren Rewi said: "the lack of respect of women councillors - that needs to change." 

Darren Rewi then went on to broach the subject of QLDC council staff being accountable for their actions. In respect of the Shotover sewage crisis, and years of apparent engineering failures and cover ups, he said that in any private business "people would be gone by now."

That triggered mayor Lewers into what appeared to be something of an angry and impatient reply where he argued that everyone "had to trust the staff."

John Glover then accused the mayor of "mansplaining" the sewage issues and asked "who is suing the contractors, who is holding managers accountable? Nobody."

In a surprise retort the mayor then argued that holding staff accountable would produce millions of dollars of personal grievance employment claims - and then said that not holding staff accountable was "saving ratepayers millions of dollars in personal grievance claims."

This twisted logic left the audience metaphorically and in reality shaking their heads in disbelief.

The mayor also defended council CEO Mike Theelen when asked about the qualities he would look for in Mr Theelen's replacement. Basically Mayor Lewers wanted more of the same, claiming the QLDC had a world class, award winning culture. The other candidates had a different view, wanting a CEO that could execute radical change and also listen to the elected councillors.

But just when we thought things would not get much worse, Glyn Lewers started to tout the huge benefits of Regional Deals and the accompanying private financing of large infrastructure projects. The other candidates agreed with some caution - "we need more details" was the consensus.

Mayor Lewers than said "I am the only one who knows what's going on." 

His intention was apparently to show how he had the inside track and was the proud owner of special information. The 300 audience members, and the other candidates onstage, took it as a rather sad admission of yet more secrecy. Some laughed.

The rather random fringe candidate Daniel Shand then introduced a much needed note of levity by saying, when asked about local traffic congestion, "I just want it fixed, as its time to go home."

The other fringe candidate, Al Angus, did not even bother to turn up at all.