Racism Allegations Mar Public Meeting on Moa Point Amid Hostility and Misinformation

In a tense public forum Monday night, over 300 Wellington residents gathered seeking answers about the ongoing Moa Point wastewater crisis that has resulted in nearly two weeks of untreated sewage being discharged into the city’s south coast waters.

The meeting, convened by Rongotai MP Julie-Anne Genter and Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul, quickly devolved into chaos as officials, including Wellington Water chief operating officer Charles Barker and Wellington Mayor Andrew Little, faced a barrage of interruptions and hostile comments from a vocal minority.

While many attendees came with genuine concerns about the infrastructure failure, the discourse was repeatedly derailed by unsubstantiated claims, including baseless accusations that Wellington’s cycleways were somehow responsible for the wastewater system breakdown.

MP Tamatha Paul became a particular target of the hostility. Speaking to Te Ao News afterward, she noted, “This is the reality, Tory Whānau is not in town anymore, so I’m public enemy number one to disinformation spreaders and to racists, and they would love to blame a generational crisis on someone who wasn’t even born when the Moa Point facility plant was built.”

Paul drew parallels to the treatment former minister Nanaia Mahuta faced during the Three Waters reforms. “Indigenous leaders in our country who are women who try to fix these issues are instead met with lies and disinformation and targeted hate campaigns. You will never get good leaders in this country if that’s the way you treat women,” she stated.

Benjamin Wynyard-Terry, who identified as mana whenua, highlighted how such environments can alienate Māori voices. “I think that’s why you won’t see our people here, because these are not our spaces. We’re not comfortable to speak, in probably a very small mana whenua population here in Wellington,” he explained.

The environmental impact weighs heavily on Indigenous communities. “The continuing of the sewage into our waters is trampling on our mana,” Wynyard-Terry emphasized, pointing to the cultural and spiritual damage beyond the physical pollution.

Kaitiaki wai Martin Andrews acknowledged officials’ courage in facing the community, noting, “It was always going to be on the cards that it turned into what it did. It started collegial, but in the last half, you could feel the energy changing. I think they were brave. They were here to take the hit.”

Though not present at the meeting, Wellington iwi Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o te Ika expressed profound disappointment in a separate statement. Chair Te Whatanui Winiata described their reaction as “hurt, disappointment and anger,” stemming from their whakapapa relationship to the environment.

“We believe that we are a part of the taiao. The taiao is our whanaunga. This discharge is unacceptable and reflects a serious failure of infrastructure and governance,” Winiata stated, emphasizing that proper kaitiakitanga (guardianship) must be central to future decision-making.

In response to the crisis, Local Government Minister Simon Watts has announced that a Crown Review Team will conduct an independent investigation into the plant failure. The team will include senior water services experts with technical engineering, governance, commercial, and legal expertise.

“The failure of a key part of our capital city’s critical wastewater infrastructure and the ensuing impact on communities, the local economy and the environment are completely unacceptable,” Watts said. “The public is owed the assurance that we understand what led to this failure and that we are taking steps to prevent it from happening again.”

The review team will be appointed to both Wellington City Council and Wellington Water Ltd, ensuring full investigative scope. They will deliver actionable recommendations, including specific directives for Wellington City Council where necessary.

Under the government’s Local Water Done Well reforms, management of metropolitan Wellington’s water services, including the Moa Point plant, will soon transfer to a new council-controlled organization called Tiaki Wai Ltd.

As the crisis continues, MP Paul emphasized the need for a fundamental shift in Wellington’s relationship with water: “The bigger point is how do we live with water, how do we be more conscious of how much water we consume, and how do we make sure that we’re not polluting the moana? Because those impacts might be irreversible… the smell will go away in the bay. Some of those species that have been polluted endangered, and so that’s really important.”