Holding company proposal brought back from the dead

A holding company for Nelson’s port and airport will be established, after being resuscitated at the last minute by the Nelson City Council.

The council originally torpedoed the holding company proposal in July, with only councillors Brian McGurk, Kate Fulton, Gaile Noonan, and the mayor and deputy mayor in favour.

However, mayor Rachel Reese brought it back for a last-gasp try at getting the holding company under way, and succeeded, with eight votes in favour, three against, and two absent for the vote.

The item returned to the council chamber just before 8pm on Thursday night as the councillors battled through their final three-day council meeting of the triennium. Despite pushback, ultimately the council passed the decision and brought the establishment of the holding company back on track.

This decision was foreshadowed at a meeting of the Tasman District Council, where TDC finance group manager Mike Drummond said ‘‘if Nelson City [Council] . . . resolves to proceed, then we will complete the project’’.

Councillor Mel Courtney was strongly against the return of the same proposal, and said he took ‘‘umbrage’’ at the lateness of the item both in the triennium and on the day of the meeting.

‘‘There were red flags with this ... right from the beginning with me, and it continued right through the considerations that took place following its introduction,’’ he said.

Courtney repeated his earlier argument that it was ‘‘foolhardy’’ to chase a potential 1% interest rate differential, and said the risks of the holding company outweighed the benefits.

He attempted to move an amendment to pay for a range of tidying-up costs to ‘‘close this item out’’, but failed to gain enough support.

He and councillors Rachel Sanson, Tim Skinner and Trudie Brand voted in favour of the motion.

Councillor Tim Skinner said the original decision was made by the council ‘‘with our eyes wide open’’, and he found it ‘‘disrespectful to think that we at the table who’ve made a decision somehow didn’t know what we were doing’’.

When the motion failed, the vote on establishing a holding company was held again. It passed with just councillors Courtney, Skinner, and Brand voting against. By this point in the meeting, councillors Sanson and Pete Rainey were absent.

Councillor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, despite originally voting not to establish the holding company, said that in the meantime, the case for it had grown stronger, and the cost of not establishing such a company had also increased.

Councillor Brian McGurk said he supported it the first time around, and still supported it. ‘‘We have already committed to doing the holding company, and to renege at this stage is shameful,’’ he said.

‘‘I think we need to grow up, actually, and adopt the holding company because everyone else is doing it and we’re basically constraining ourselves.’’

He said that if it didn’t pass, ‘‘we’re going to be left with nothing but a smouldering pile’’.

‘‘Those that [don’t] support this, have burnt down the house, and they’re the arsonists.’’

A holding company would take ownership of the port and airport on behalf of the two councils as shareholders. It would grant access to loan funding from the Local Government Funding Agency at relatively cheap rates.