Sir Peter Jackson has put pen to paper – or rather, thumbs to touchscreen – again, and made it clear who he'll be backing come the local body elections later this year.
The long-running dispute over the $500 million Shelly Bay development - which Jackson opposes in its current form – is now having to go back through resource consent after a court said the city council had not acted entirely correctly.
In a 6674 word post on his Facebook page, posted at around 6.50 pm on Monday, the movie mogul takes aim at councillors new and old for enabling a "modern-day land grab".
That included Wellington Mayor Justin Lester.
In response Lester said arguments of bias on the part of Wellington City Council were rejected by the High Court and Court of Appeal as being "without foundation".
A new resource consent would now be considered objectively by independent commissioners.
"If this is an attempt to undermine that process, it is very disappointing."
He had "full respect" for the regulatory and judicial system.
Jackson's post contended that the land at Shelly Bay had been sold without the permission of mana whenua.
In a lengthy timeline of the Shelly Bay saga, he repeatedly posed the question: "How on earth can this happen when the landowners [local iwi] have not agreed to sell their land?"
However, four Wellington City councillors have had the tick of approval from Sir Peter Jackson.
He shoulder-tapped two of Wellington's longest serving councillors for acting – in his view – with "integrity".
They were Iona Pannett and Andy Foster, along with relative newcomers David Lee and Simon Woolf.