This week's Friday Edition - can you join the dots?

In this afternoon’s Friday Edition we detail all of the different threads that came together this week, perhaps revealing the real Queenstown in an unexpected way.

• Two influential brothers, Adam and Heath Copland, get argumentative with Crux - and it does not take long for us to discover why. The answer is surprising and involves QLDC’s $33 million sale of Commonage Land.

• The Chair of the council’s Audit, Finance and Risk committee refuses to discuss the same issue. Crux: “Are you going to reply to our email?” Stuart McLauchlan, committee chair: “No.”

• The same committee looks at devolving the management of council financial risk to CEO Mike Theelen. It’s supposed to be the committee’s main job and what’s Mike (as staff) doing even sitting at the committee (governance) table?

• We cover the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee meeting from start to finish and come away with the impression that they have no intention of seriously managing QLDC’s audit, finance and risk. QLDC’s Lakeview boss, Paul Speedy, appeared not to know his subject - pretty much at all. The agenda also revealed the cost of that illegal Shotover Disposal field wall - but nobody talks about it.

• Nobody talks about another agenda item - a letter from QLDC’s auditors Deloitte that gives a really bad rating to virtually all of the council’s financial risk management - it appears that this is somehow normal and needs no action or discussion.

• Lorraine Cooper’s husband, Warren, has been Queenstown mayor and also the Minister for Tourism. In the Mountain Scene this week she talks about the Commonage Land deal and also how the sewage crisis needs to trigger a shut down of local development. The crazy thing is that the Mountain Scene has not once covered the sewage crisis - not one word. Her views are interesting and very well expressed. She must be a Crux reader.

• We can’t quite join all of these dots - but will present the evidence. In the meantime we discover that the Shotover Disposal Field sewage discharges have become a lot worse this week - we have photos and video - but the ORC don’t seem interested.

• Plus - all of this week the QLDC and ORC have been in Environment Court sewage mediation sessions - but of course it’s all behind closed doors.

• And CEO Mike Theelen wants us all to tell him “how we really feel.” We’ll have the link for you to use for the QLDC survey that goes live on Monday.

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