Submission to QLDC's draft Significance & Engagement Policy
Date: 28 July 2024
The draft policy removes any obligation to consult the community if Council’s 75% supermajority ownership control was diluted through the sale of new shares.
The purpose of QLDC’s Significance and Engagement Policy (SEP) is to identify those critical issues on which its community must be formally consulted. In its three-year review, the draft SEP listed the council’s ownership of Queenstown Airport Corporation shares, whereas it had previously specifically identified Queenstown Airport among its strategic assets.
This change means that if QAC issues new shares, as it did when it secretly sold 24.99% of the company to Auckland Airport in 2010, those shares aren’t owned by QLDC. In that case, the draft SEP would not apply and so there would be no requirement for community consultation.
But the creation of just 0.02% additional shares is enough to dilute QLDC ownership below the 75% threshold that currently gives it supermajority control of QAC, equivalent to sole-ownership.