Former Invercargill city councillor Wayne Harpur has called for all 12 Invercargill city councillors to resign and stand again in a by-election. 

Mr Harpur told the council during a public forum today (October 27) that a by-election for one person was not good enough. 

Deputy mayor and councillor Toni Biddle resigned recently, sparking the by-election for one seat at the council table. 

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Mr Harpur said in a media release issued before the meeting that it was time for councillors to “stop their infighting and sniping through the media and literally put their money where their mouth is”.  

He confirmed he was going to stand in the by-election for the seat vacated by Cr Biddle. 

He said all councillors should stand down en masse to allow the ratepayers to decide if they have a mandate for their current behaviour.  

"Other than attacking the Mayor [Sir TIm Shadbolt] and each other and behaving atrociously, I and others cannot see what most of the current council are doing to earn their not-insignificant salaries," he said.  

"The council has annual expenditure exceeding $100 million per annum. Instead of having oversight and governance of this, councillors seem more concerned with commenting on the mayor's mental state - something which none of them have any professional ability to do."  

Mr Harpur said ratepayers had to foot the bill for one by-election, and it would cost no more to have a by-election for every seat around the council table.  

"Invercargill is at a crossroads, but the current councillors are more backseat drivers rather than taking the wheel of progress to move the City forward.  

“Under investigation by the Department of Internal Affairs, it's time for them all to take responsibility for their behaviour and stand down.  

“If the people of Invercargill want them back, then they will vote them back in."  

Mr Harpur said he did not believe councillors would support his proposal as their self-interest overrode any obligation to ratepayers.  

"I don't believe any of them have the gumption to do this." Mr Harpur said. 

 Invercargill needed leadership - but it was wrong just to leave this to the mayor. "Everyone around that table needs to shoulder some of the load to make Invercargill work," he said.  

Councillors seek examples of poor decision-making

Invercargill city councillors have challenged Mr Harpur to give examples of poor decision making at the council table.

After Mr Harpur criticised councillors' governance and performance and called on them to resign en masse, mayor Sir Tim Shadbolt asked councillors if they had any questions for Mr Harpur.  

Cr Ian Pottinger queried the council's “toxic” environment and asked for examples of poor decisions and poor governance.  

“We are talking about governance here. Not the media. There is a bit difference,” Cr Pottinger said.  

Harpur said he used the word “toxic” because that was the word Cr Biddle had used herself.  

He said the most controversial or significant decisions were being made without public disclosure, making it hard to know from the outside what was going on.  

Cr Biddle had made the ultimate sacrifice and resigned her position, he said.  

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Cr Lindsay Abbot asked if Mr Harpur’s opinion was “pretty general out there among ratepayers”.  

Mr Harpur said it was hard to know, but from what he was picking up from media, social media and comments on the street, governance was a concern.  

A by-election was an ideal chance to put that issue to the public, he said.  

Cr Alex Crackett said she appreciated Mr Harpur was replicating sentiment “out there”.  

However, she asked him if he was aware of the many projects councillors had got under way, or the contracts they had got across the line.  

She listed the council’s achievements. They included the Invercargill city centre project, the sale of forestry, increased funding for the stadium, addressing toxic mould at Rugby Park, a governance change at SMAG [Southland Museum and Art Gallery], work on trails at Bluff, the council’s Covid-19 response and rates, strengthening of the Invercargill Water Tower and community consultation.  

“While I really appreciate there is a lot of media squabble, when it comes to the actual governance and the decisions being made, this council does a really good job,” Cr Crackett said.  

Mr Harpur said he aware of some of that and she was right, some decisions had been pretty good.  

But the Invercargill ratepayer was continually paying for Southland’s infrastructure, such as for SMAG, and the Gore and Southland councils were riding on Invercargill’s coat tails. Those were decisions he did not think the Invercargill council were doing well, he said.  

Sir Tim asked for further questions. There were none.  

“Thank you very much, Mr Harpur. We appreciate your input once again. It will certainly generate more media interest. Thank you,” Sir Tim said. 

After the meeting, Mr Harpur told the Southland App he was concerned he had "blindsided" the councillors with his comments, when that had not been his intention

He had prepared his report well before the meeting, so councillors could read it first, he said.

The council's lawyers had approached him and obtained his agreement to redact a couple of clauses in his report but it did not appear the councillors had seen the report, he said.

He felt heartened by responses from people in the public gallery today.

"I have had some comments from people endorsing what I'm saying," he said.

CLICK HERE to view the public forum submission via Facebook live.