Civil disobedience likely to follow Waiheke waste decision

At a fiery city development meeting yesterday Citizen and Ratepayers councillors voted to take Waiheke Island’s $22 million waste contract off local non-profit company Clean Stream Waiheke and award it to an Australian multinational.

To a chorus of “Shame on you” from Waiheke locals, councillors voted seven to two to award the 10-year contract to TransPacific Industries (TPI) and to disqualify Clean Stream from the tender because of alleged canvassing of councillors.

At a meeting of the full council today, councillors voted 10 to four to ratify the decision of the city development committee.

Clean Stream director John Stansfield, accused last week of canvassing councillors, rejected the allegations.

“Our position as a company is there was no canvassing,” he told Te Waha Nui Online.

In a statement released by left-leaning City Vision-Labour councillors, councillor Richard Northey said: “I am profoundly disappointed that emails I received from the director of Clean Stream which raised questions about the growing mountain of refuse from the VISY plant on the coast of Onehunga where I live were used by Citizens and Ratepayers as the excuse to disqualify Clean Stream.”

Stansfield says the council’s decision was predetermined and it consequently lied about the performance of TPI’s Onehunga Visy plant.

He says when he received information that glass sent to the plant was not being remade into bottles he made formal inquiries with no success.

So activists went to look and found a mountain of un-recycled mixed rubbish at the plant.

The council, he says, denied the mountain existed and when that was no longer possible disassociated itself from its creation.

“We felt it was a duty of public advocacy to let the councillors know that they and the public were being misled.

“Had we not done that we may have had no votes in our favour.”

Commercial barrister John Walton recommended to councillors that there was no contractual obligation to disqualify Clean Stream but “important issues of principle” were at stake.

He said the council could lose credibility in future tender processes if Clean Stream was not banned.

Councillor Leila Boyle, one of the two councillors who voted against the TPI contract, says Waiheke people have only one course left to take.

“It’s what they said today [at the meeting]. They were very clear – civil disobedience. They will rise up against the council in a non-violent manner.”

At the hearing Boyle said Clean Stream became the best tenderer “by fulfilling the triple bottom line, of environmental, economic and cultural concerns”.

She said the difference in price of the tenders would be made up by value base and Waiheke was willing to pay extra to retain its local service.

Councillor Glenda Fryer said she had attended conferences where Auckland City Council had used Waiheke as an example of working toward an environmentally sustainable solution.

“Waiheke has an exemplar system with local jobs, money going back in the economy, research partnerships with the university, community engagement, product produced and recycling. The community has bought into the present system, they won’t [buy into] TPI.”

To applause from the public gallery she said the canvassing issue was a “witch-hunt looking for evidence to rule out Clean Stream”.

Sue Connor, from Waiheke Does It Better, says the process “was a litany of misinformation from the beginning”.

She said the council had predetermined the outcome of the tender process and provided an email sent in 2008 by a councillor who said: “What we are aiming to achieve is to use this report as a sound business case for our council to approve the change in services on the island. This will be controversial so the report needs to be tight and cover all basis from all parties that will be involved.”

Auckland City confirmed to Radio New Zealand yesterday that the sender of the email was a council member.

“The council has stomped on a community initiative. We believe there should be a full inquiry,” says Connor.

She says the final decision will need to be made by the Auckland Transition Agency, which will oversee the shift to the new super city.

She believes Clean Stream’s contract should have rolled over until the power of local boards under the new council could be determined.

Stansfield agrees, saying awarding a 10 year contract to TPI goes strongly against the Royal Commission for Auckland Governance’s recommendations for Waiheke.

Waiheke journalist Minka Firth says the council’s decision will mean a huge economic loss for the small community.

Clean Stream employs and upskills people in the community who may not get jobs elsewhere.

“It gives people pride in themselves and in their community. This has not been accounted for.”

Waiheke resident and former Gulf News editor Greg Treadwell says the issue is an environmental one.

“You can’t rely on this council to view the environment as a priority.

“It’s a heartbreaking loss of social capital that our community spent 10 years building. I suspect this is another sorry chapter in the very unhappy relationship between Waiheke and Auckland City.”

At the Auckland Town Hall meeting yesterday all seats were taken, mainly by vocal islanders desperate to keep their waste services in local hands.

Connor asked to speak at the meeting but the council banned any public forum.

“So much for democracy,” she says.

This did not stop Waiheke residents having their say. Councillors’ comments throughout the meeting were met with either heckling or standing ovations.

When a councillor said it was against the auditor’s rules that they award a contract to their “mates on Waiheke” he was met with: “You have no mates in Waiheke!”

When the final votes were counted the audience erupted into anger.

Screams of “There will be civil disobedience”, “We will not accept” and “It’s disgusting” filled the room.

Councillors were chased to the door and blocked from leaving by furious islanders yelling, “Shame on you”.

One councillor was smacked on the behind by an enraged resident.

“Never underestimate the power of a motivated passionate community,” said islander Charles Graves.

Watch highlights of the city development committee’s on April 4 here.

Click on the play button to hear a recording of today’s full council meeting. If it doesn’t start, it can also be heard here.