OPINION

What is it with Prime Ministers from Auckland giving us a bad rap?

First it was John Key telling us we were dying. He of course was right - he just got his decades wrong.

Now we have Christopher Luxon calling us "lame-o".

I haven’t heard that phrase since the 90s, but that aside, he's dead right.

Why?

Well last year the government announced it would be offering councils the opportunity to sign up to what they called 'regional deals'.

These would be a 10 year plans based on a 30 year visions which would provide a range of options for funding. Maybe toll roads, maybe a new train line, a new tunnel. Whatever it might be, the idea was to try to help the regions with the high cost of infrastructure and unlock a bit more productivity.

It's a great idea.

The government invited councils across the country to come up with ideas by the end of February from which it would select five regions to put forward for more in depth proposals and eventually a truckload of cash.

Basically this was free cash for a big idea. It was a very good opportunity for Wellington.

But guess what... we didn’t even suggest anything.

Eighteen proposals were submitted last month but none were from the Wellington region.

Well Prime Minister Christopher Luxon didn't like that. That's where the lame-o comment came from.

Luxon said every other region has been able to work together for the last six months while Wellington hasn't even shown up with a proposal..

Chris Hipkins even criticised our councils too. He said our councils need to get it together.

What this really demonstrates to me is that our councils simply can’t work together.

How often have we said we need a super city? How often do we discuss the fact that our Mayors are not all on same page?

Look at Wellington Water. They couldn’t keep track of all these cost blowouts and they couldn’t agree on whether to sack chair Nick Leggett.

And now we find they can’t agree on what is essentially free money for a big project.

The rest is history, well not quite history. The name calling isn't stopping..

Wellington mayor Tory Whanau said the comments were “poor form” for a Prime Minister.

"With due respect Prime Minister we will deliver a deal it'll just be on our time frame. We are determined to get this right," Whanau said.

Why does she think its the council's job to dictate timeframes to a government wanting to dish out free cash?

Apparently they were told by the Crown observer to concentrate on their water issues and not to put a submission together.

Because its really clear our councils have been focused on water.... come on.

Whoever you want to listen to, it's clear the relations between the government and Wellington councils have sunk to a new low. They keep trading jabs.

What is it with the Wellington region? Why is it that they can't work together for something as simple as putting a proposal together to get some money from the government?

And why do we have to keep talking about combining Porirua, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Wellington into one council?

If ever we needed confirmation that this is required for us to grow it's this week. No unanimous decision on the future of Wellington Water and no discussion to submit something to the government's regional deals.

These deals were quite literally money for nothing and we didn’t even want it. Frankly we are lame-o for not grasping that with both hands.

This just confirms to me how desperately we need one council. One council table to take the region forward, not four.

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