By Libby Kirkby-McLeod of RNZ
Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale has called the sale of marine precinct land a “s*** deal”, but residents say he is not taking the opportunity to cancel the deal.
Council commissioners announced in May the Marine Precinct at Sulphur Point had been sold, with purchaser Sam Rofe set to develop it into a superyacht destination.
Commercial boat operators who based their businesses in the precinct were dismayed by the news.
After council elections in July, marine precinct users organised a meeting to discuss the issue with the newly elected mayor and councillors.

Drysdale was strong in his criticism of the deal in that October meeting.
“It’s a shit deal, you know... we’ve inherited it.”
He told users the new council did not want the deal to go ahead.
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“If we could get out of this deal … we would get out of this deal,” he told Lobby for Good director Erika Harvey, an outspoken opponent of the sale.
She pointed RNZ to a clause in the sale contract that said the council could cancel the sale. 
It states: “If at any time before the settlement date, an injunction proceeding is issued or any court granted preventing the sale and/or registration of a transfer in pursuance of this agreement, the vendor will be entitled, by notice in writing to immediately cancel this agreement”.
Harvey said she did not understand why the council had not now stopped the sale, especially given the assurances from Drysdale at the October meeting.
“It did seem to everyone in that room that they wished that there was a way out. So, when we gave them one, and they didn’t take it, it came as a shock to all of us.” 
The “way out” is the High Court interim injunction, which prevented the sale from being completed and was issued after precinct-based business Pacific7 filed judicial review proceedings.
Roger Rawlinson was at the October meeting and said the mayor made them feel he was on their side.

“We assumed moving forward that if there was any wiggle room or any way to get out of it, he would go out of his way to do that.”
He now felt that the mayor may not have been honest at the start.
“Because if he was consistent, he would just be what he was in that first meeting... but it appears either something has changed his mind, or he wasn’t honest to begin with.”
Drysdale told RNZ he stood by what he said in the October meeting and reiterated the current deal would not have been approved under his council.
Last week, the interim injunction stopping the sale was heard in the High Court at Tauranga, with the purchaser arguing it should be thrown out and the sale go ahead.
Drysdale said council was at the hearing, but was not fighting the injunction.
“As Tauranga City Council, we are a party and, obviously, provided information that was required to that, but we weren’t actually a party to the strike-out of that injunction,” he said.
The council was working productively with all parties to find the best possible outcome, he said.
“We have looked at every option available to us.”
The council was following legal advice but could not disclose that advice. 
RNZ asked the council whether it has considered enacting the cancellation clause, or if it had taken any votes on the matter.
Spokeswoman Christine Jones said the council had sought legal advice and had legal representation in respect of the injunction and the agreement.

However, as the matter was subject to legal proceedings, it would not be making any comment.
The High Court reserved its decision after the hearing last week, and an interim order pausing the sale remains in place.

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Union crusader Mahé Drysdale is no stranger to fighting for fairness. 

Just last year, he and the Athlete’s Co-operative - formed in mid-2022 - took High Performance Sport NZ (HPSNZ) to the Employment Relations Authority, challenging how athletes were classified to deny them proper rights and protections. He stood up against backroom decisions, lack of consultation, and the exploitation of power structures. He demanded transparency, accountability, and a fair process.
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As far back as 2016 - following his final Olympic appearance in the black singlet - Drysdale has been rallying rowers and cyclists together in a bid for a bigger slice of the funding/decision-making pie.

“We want a better environment for athletes, we want to be respected and we want to be a part of designing the system that delivers results in New Zealand and unfortunately at the moment that is not the case,” he said.

“We are told what, how and why we are doing things and so this is our opportunity to try and negotiate co-designing a system that we’re all happy with.”
He cautioned against rocking the boat when livelihoods were on the line. 

“If you’re against what they want you’re always liable of having that funding cut.”
The fact Drysdale only began to properly organise the athletes once he’d hung up his oars - including the $60,000 performance enhancement grant (PEGs) afforded Olympic gold medalists - is neither here nor there.

“Right now, I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m out of the sport,” he said. 

The athletes’ union’s litigation surged out to an early lead in the landmark employment case in early-2024 when authority member Rowan Anderson found the government agency was obligated to engage in good-faith collective bargaining with the cooperative representing around 60 elite cyclists and rowers. Government-funded HPSNZ struck back in January of this year, when the agency scored a key victory in overturning that decision in the Employment Court.

All signs point to Drysdale and his comrades not backing down, with strong indications the union he represents is keen to draw out the costly legal process even further with a subsequent challenge in the Court of Appeal. 

But now, as Tauranga’s mayor, he seems to have forgotten those principles.

The Marine Precinct sale, a multi-million dollar public asset handover, was pushed through without proper consultation, without an open bidding process, and at a price far below its real value. Local marine businesses, who have been the backbone of this industry, were effectively shut out of the decision-making process​.

Sound familiar?
When it was about Drysdale and his fellow athletes, he fought against this kind of treatment. He called out the system for sidelining the very people it was meant to support. Yet, under his leadership, Tauranga City Council (TCC) is doing the exact same thing, but this time, it’s small business owners and ratepayers who are being left in the dark.

Now Drysdale is singing a very different tune - in Facebook comment sections no less. Responding to a Tauranga ratepayer he advocated for making the best of a bad deal in lieu of backing out of a sale he and the council had every right to get out of once an injunction was granted by the High Court.

“We have so far taken the best course action for the interests of the city. If you are a Ratepayer how much of Ratepayers money would you be prepared to risk in cancelling the deal? 

“We will continue to make the best of it. From your comments you clearly don’t understand the full situation.”

A Bad Deal for Tauranga, A Great Deal for a Private Investor
Let’s be clear about what’s happening here:

• A $33 million public asset was sold for just $14 million, behind closed doors​
• The buyer didn’t have to go through an open market bidding process, meaning the community never got to see if there were better offers.
• Ratepayers are now footing the bill for an additional $30 million in infrastructure upgrades in the form of Pontoon structures that will benefit a private company, while local marine businesses are pushed out​
• The new owner can charge 35% in management fees and take 40% of the remaining revenue, while Tauranga carries all the financial risk​
• If the buyer flips the land later? They profit, while the community is left with nothing.

Would Drysdale have accepted this kind of deal if it were about athletes’ rights? Would he have allowed HPSNZ to hand-pick who succeeded and who got cut out? The answer is a resounding no; he took them to court (very likely repeatedly) instead.

So why, as mayor, is he actively defending a process that shuts out local businesses, locks the public out of decision-making, and leaves Tauranga residents paying the bill?
Fairness Can’t Be Selective
This is a defining moment for Mayor Drysdale.
If he truly believes in transparency, fair process, and protecting people from being shut out by powerful interests, then he should apply those same principles here. That means:

1. Supporting an independent investigation into the Marine Precinct sale to uncover how this deal was made and why better options were ignored​
2. Explaining why small business owners were excluded from a GENUINE consultation process, despite years of working within the precinct​
3. Committing to policy reforms that ensure public assets aren’t handed off in closed-door deals ever again.

Tauranga ratepayers, small business owners, and the marine industry deserve a mayor who applies the same fairness he fought for once his own athletic career was no longer on the line.

Drysdale is standing up for transparency for athletes. Will he do the same for Tauranga?

If not, the public has every right to ask: Was his fight about principles, or just about himself?
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More to the point, based on his leadership and public comments, is it he who clearly doesn’t understand the full situation?

- Erika Harvey is an advocate for transparency and fairness. This Op-Ed reflects her views on the importance of holding leaders accountable.