John MacDonald: The tone deaf argument for more cathedral money

What part of no does the Christchurch City Council not understand? Because, despite us knowing what the answer would be, councillors yesterday voted in favour of putting another $15 million into the Anglican Cathedral reinstatement project, providing the government came to the party. And, wouldn’t you know it - within just a few hours of the vote happening - Finance Minister Nicola Willis was already pouring cold water on the idea. Saying the government has already contributed $25 million to the cathedral and there won’t be any more. She said there are many pressing infrastructure needs and the cathedral isn’t one of them. She’ll get no argument from me on that one. Not that anyone should be surprised. Because she said the exact same thing last year when the people involved in the reinstatement went knocking on the door asking the government to come to their rescue. Which she reminded us of last night. Saying: “In declining the cathedral’s funding ask, we noted that the requested amount represented a significant contribution for a building that would not be owned by the public, and where public use could be limited due to the cathedral being a private, religious space.” Which was a polite way of telling the cathedral people, and now the council too, that it was no the first time, it’s no this time and don’t bother asking a third time. Because, as far as she’s concerned, it is end of story. And fair enough, too. Because it would be obscene, given the state of the country’s finances and the state of our infrastructure, for more taxpayer money to go into it. I even think it’s obscene that the City Council thought it was ok to ask for it. How more tone deaf could it be? It’s end of story too as far as Labour is concerned. Chris Hipkins has previously said that he doesn’t think more taxpayer money should go into the cathedral. And local Labour MP Tracey McLellan said the same thing last night. Winston Peters, though, has already pledged $15 million if he’s in the next government. But I can’t imagine that being one of his non-negotiables in any coalition talks. So I think the cathedral can kiss goodbye to any money coming from any government. In case you need it, let me remind you of the numbers. The reinstatement project is $90 million short. They’ve asked for a total of between $40 million and $45 million from ratepayers and taxpayers. And, so far, somewhere around $90 million has been spent. More numbers for you: when the vote was taken yesterday, 11 councillors and Mayor Phil Mauger voted in favour. Three were against and two abstained. And there were emotional scenes around the council table, apparently. One report I’ve seen says Councillor Melanie Coker was fighting back tears. Saying she was torn about spending the council’s surplus, because of the other things it could be spent on, but said the cathedral is the heart of the city. She said: “We had an earthquake and it kept us out of the city. It was like a break-up with the city that we knew and we never got it back again, so we need to heal our broken heart.” Councillor Andrei Moore was very anti. He told the meeting that he’d done a survey and, of the 1,200 who took part, 91 percent were opposed to the council funding the cathedral. He said he wasn’t prepared to ignore what the people had said and, if he did, he would be breaching their trust. He said: “I don’t think we are doing the right thing.” Never a truer word said. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.