Wellington hosted a V8 street race event every year from 1985 to 1996, and this 1988 VL Commodore graced what looks like Aotea Quay in this undated photo. The event was eventually killed off by two major construction projects, Queens Wharf Event Centre and Te Papa (museum), and after a hiatus it moved north.
Hamilton hosted the event from 2008 to 2012.
To say the demise of the Hamilton event was attributed to costs would be an understatement. Media at the time reported that it was quite a blowout, for example:
Hamilton V8’s funding blowout link denied – Stuff, 15 December 2010
“Meanwhile, there are also questions about councillors who had regular briefings on the costs – mainly behind closed doors – yet they failed to pick up on the cost blowout.”
Perhaps surprisingly, two more races were held following this report; in 2011 and 2012.
The local paper hasn’t forgotten the financial pain for ratepayers:
Rarked up on “record” rates rise – Waikato Times, 9 December 2023
“And if you thought you’d never seen it this bad during the worst of Hamilton’s many and varied financial storms, like the $27m V8 race hosting blow-out or the $68m Claudelands Events centre build stoush of more than a decade past - you’d be right.”
What does all this have to do with employment law? Council expenditure that is widely considered to be irresponsible will eventually lead, one way or another, to a range of issues. Blame shifting, bullying, cost cutting in the wrong places, inefficiency, redundancies and worse. In such environment there is likely to be an increase in employment relationship problems.
Hopefully that explains the link between the VL Commodore and employment law, which we have been researching since 2019.
Allan Halse was a property manager and union delegate with Hamilton City Council from 2008 until his dismissal in January 2014. That was a whistleblower retaliation event, and Halse raised a personal grievance claim in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA, similar to the UK’s ET).
As usual, the ERA kicked the matter down to Mediation Services where the parties settled, on 14 February 2014. Under the terms of the settlement, Halse is not allowed to tell you or me what he was whistleblowing about, but I believe we’ve covered that, as above. We also suspect that if Hamilton V8s had never happened he would still have a job (or a job to retire from; he’s now 72).
Media at the time reported both his dismissal and the fact the parties settled. One of the articles mentioned that Halse was planning to set up a business and advocate for bullied workers, which he continues to do to this day.
In 2021 Crybaby Council sued Halse for disparaging it (in the context of advocating for bullied workers, including a few who were Council employees), and even more absurdly, for disclosing the fact that he had settled with the Council in 2014. Apparently there was a clause in the Record of Settlement (NDA) that the very existence of a settlement agreement was secret. With an obsequious (at best) ERA Member in its corner, the Council won. Halse was fined $9,000 (£4200), payable to the Crown.
He challenged the ERA decision to the Employment Court (similar to the UK’s EAT). Soon after filing his challenge, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, of which the ERA is a part, sent bailiffs to his workplace, and later, his home. Both left empty-handed.
We have no knowledge of when the Employment Court hearing will be – presumably in early 2024.
Hamilton City Council retaliated against a whistleblower twice, and seven years apart. That speaks for itself, but if ratepayers tolerate having their money spent in this way, more liberties will be taken.
On the other hand, that’s nothing that a 25.5% rates rise can’t fix!