There is a saying: \u201cThe truth is like a lion. You don\u2019t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself\u201d. <\/p>\n
Hastings District Council \u2013 half a billion dollars in debt, overseeing the departure of two of the district\u2019s largest industrial employers \u2013 has yet to do anything to figure out what that might mean.<\/p>\n
McCain will close its Hastings vegetable processing plant by January 2027. <\/p>\n
Heinz Wattie\u2019s has begun a partial withdrawal, closing frozen packing lines in Hastings and manufacturing sites in Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland \u2014 with serious questions remaining about the long-term viability of its remaining Hastings presence.<\/p>\n
In response? Concern, commentary and committee proposals. Three Labour MPs held a public meeting in Hastings on Tuesday, April 14 on job losses. <\/p>\n
The council expressed sympathy. Wellington has paid attention.<\/p>\n
What nobody locally has done \u2014 now confirmed in writing \u2014 is run the numbers.<\/p>\n
When Wendy Schollum won the mayoralty with 26% of the vote, ratepayers inherited a council whose external debt stood at $493.7m as at December 31, 2025, tracking towards a forecast $515m by June 2026 and a projected $700m by 2030. <\/p>\n
This is a council that increased rates by 8.7% in 2023, 19% in 2024, and 15% in 2025. <\/p>\n
And accumulated $140m in new debt in 18 months. By any measure, the council is borrowing more than it earns.<\/p>\n
It is now consulting ratepayers on a 5.9% increase – or a 9.1% increase.<\/p>\n
The lower option sounds like relief, but means borrowing $4.8 million to bridge the gap between rates revenue and operating costs. Spending has not increased; the council has chosen to limit the rates rise rather than close the shortfall.<\/p>\n
That was the fiscal position before McCain confirmed it was walking away entirely, or Heinz Wattie\u2019s signalled reduced operations.<\/p>\n
The Whakat\u016b industrial corridor seems considerably less robust than the Long-Term Plan assumes – and it\u2019s now on record that nobody at the council has looked at what that means for the rating base.<\/p>\n
An April 2 council meeting fizzed over whether a mana whenua representative should sit on a forum of the Water Services Council-Controlled Organisation.<\/p>\n
As someone with M\u0101ori ancestry, I have no fear of that debate. But Hastings ratepayers already voted in 2025\u2019s binding referendum to remove the M\u0101ori ward. <\/p>\n
Relitigating it weeks after the district\u2019s two largest food processors announced they were leaving is mere distraction.<\/p>\n
While the council found energy for that debate \u2013 nobody found the zeal to open a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n
Troubles in Hawke\u2019s Bay food manufacturing weren\u2019t unforeseen. <\/p>\n
Energy costs have been ruinous for years. Home brands cannibalise premium shelves of supermarkets, grinding profit margins down.<\/p>\n
A council that campaigned on affordability first would be stress-testing revenue assumptions against this scenario \u2014 not borrowing to cover operating costs while its industrial ratepayer base contracts.<\/p>\n
Hastings district ratepayers are already carrying mortgage stress, power bills, fuel costs, insurance costs \u2013 on top of rates growing at multiples of inflation for three consecutive years. Cyclone levies will sit on their bills for the next 16 years. <\/p>\n
They deserve a council that manages the shock of economic disruption through fiscal prudence \u2014 not one that passes it straight through to the next rates notice.<\/p>\n
The cost of running Hastings in 2026\/27 is $517 million. Rates cover just 31.97%, loans cover 33.78%. Financing costs are $23m annually. Debt repayment adds $96 million. That\u2019s $119m \u2014 nearly a quarter of the entire budget gone before anything is delivered.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s from the council\u2019s own consultation document, sent around the district last month.<\/p>\n
It tells the story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a saying: \u201cThe truth is like a lion. You don\u2019t have to defend it. Let it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[54170,5201,8606,5205,7557,37078,266,5194,174624,9858,27510,15415,13840,440,13457,183707,79817,111,43,139,6933,69,5908,51721,45822,37882,6934,23359,6923,6730],"class_list":{"0":"post-396406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-april","9":"tag-closed","10":"tag-closures","11":"tag-council","12":"tag-district","13":"tag-fiscal","14":"tag-government","15":"tag-hastings","16":"tag-heinz","17":"tag-if","18":"tag-implications","19":"tag-information","20":"tag-like","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-look","23":"tag-mccain","24":"tag-meetings","25":"tag-new-zealand","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-newzealand","28":"tag-nick","29":"tag-nz","30":"tag-official","31":"tag-regarding","32":"tag-request","33":"tag-responded","34":"tag-stewart","35":"tag-watties","36":"tag-what","37":"tag-would"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}