The Christchurch City Council Chief Executive Mary Richardson has told The New Zealand Reporter, it has received about 1,000 reports of “abuse and threats”, while defending and challenges her own council’s figures that show a more than 150 percent surge in workers taking up councilling.
She has also cited Working@Council 2025 results as proof that there had been an overall lift in worker morale and satisfaction since the 2024 internal survey.
“Despite internal gains in wellbeing, staff safety and wellbeing from external threats remains a growing concern. Over the past year, approximately 1,000 incidents of abuse and threats have been reported. The incidents reflect a troubling shift in public behaviour - what were once rare outbursts are now distressingly common.”
Mary Richardson, Christchurch City Council Chief Executive
Faces from a 2023 Christchurch City Council anti-abuse campaign. Watch the video to hear their first-hand accounts.
But the council Chief Executive Mary Richardson and Heathcote Valley councillor and mayoral hopeful Sara Templeton are split on why staff have needed 1,000 of counselling sessions.
Editor’s note: Sara Templeton is a free and paid subscriber to The New Zealand Reporter. The NZR has sought comment from all city councillors and the mayor. To date, only Mayor Phil Mauger, Templeton and councillor Aaron Keown have responded. For the sake of transparency, fairness and the integrity of the newspaper, Templeton’s initial and then revised statements have been released.
Richardson has even gone so far as to challenge the counselling figures released to The New Zealand Reporter on Friday by the Council’s Legal and Democratic Services.
The figures showed the Council had undergone more than 3,000 counselling sessions between 2023 and the release date at a cost of nearly $220,000. They also showed a more than 150 percent rise on the 2024 figures.
“This is a real concern for me and it's clear that we need to have some more oversight of what is happening within the organisation. It'd expect the Health and Safety Committee to be looking at this and reporting to the wider Council, ensuring that if there are issues to be addressed, that they are.” (Templeton/ initial statement)
“[E]lected members also need to take their leadership roles seriously as what we say in public impacts the public's behaviour and attitude towards staff and we have seen that play out several times this term.” (Templeton/ revised statement)
The Council’s Jocelyn Ritchie released a statement on Wednesday from Richardson. In late afternoon, she followed that with a “heads up” that-
“The number of sessions and the dollar figure don’t seem to reconcile.”
“At face value it appears that the number of sessions may have been overstated.”
“The Chief Executive has asked staff to urgently look into this and report back to her as soon as possible.”
“I will update you as soon as I have confirmed information.”
The 2025 Working@Council results showed that “psychological wellbeing” had risen from 64 percent to 68 percent. That is likely based on an average score of three other results-
“I feel comfortable asking for help or feedback” - 78%
“Our organisation deals effectively with workplace bullying” (55% in 2024 to 60% in 2025).
“Our organisation has processes in place to deal with workplace bullying.” (62% in 2024 to 66% in 2025.
Seventy-seven percent of staff surveyed also declared that “The health, safety, and wellbeing of staff is important in how we do things.” That was a shift from 71% in 2024.
Of the counselling data, on Monday, Templeton initially wrote-
“This is a real concern for me and it's clear that we need to have some more oversight of what is happening within the organisation. It'd expect the Health and Safety Committee to be looking at this and reporting to the wider Council, ensuring that if there are issues to be addressed, that they are. I'd like a clearer understanding of what the drivers of the increase are and what is being done to ensure that Council is meeting its employer obligations. I also note that payouts to staff who have left the organisation have increased in recent years, as reported in our Annual Reports. I have asked in the past for this to be looked at and am interested to see if there's a change in this year's report.”
Our of concern that she would be “overstep[ing] the mark” she provided a revised statement to The NZR-
“It's important that Council staff, who serve the city every day, are looked after in their roles and that we make sure the right processes and supports are available within the organisation and it looks like their are. However, elected members also need to take their leadership roles seriously as what we say in public impacts the public's behaviour and attitude towards staff and we have seen that play out several times this term. Our role is to set the direction for the organisation and then hold it to account for delivery in a constructive way, not to blame or incite public outrage.”
Richardson released the following statement-
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