The Finance Minister has labelled Wellington's council a "shambles" and the Local Government Minister says he is looking at options to intervene.
The comments were made after the the city council voted on Thursday last week to stop the sale of its 34% stake in Wellington Airport, leaving its Long-Term Plan with a major budget shortfall.
The sale was part of the council's plan and money raised from it was to be used to establish an investment fund.
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown said today he was seeking advice from officials on options available to him and thresholds for action against the council.
He would not give any timeline for developments.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government has been keeping a close eye on the capital's council - and would intervene if necessary.
"We're pretty concerned about it if I'm honest, it doesn't look great, their long-term plan looks at risk, it's something we're monitoring really closely," Luxon told Newstalk ZB.
"If we have to make an intervention we will."
Brown was paying close attention to make sure the council was financially viable after the decision not to sell its airport shares, Luxon said.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis described the state of the council as a "shambles".
But Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the fact competing councillors have different views did not signal a need for intervention by the government.
While there did seem to be a lot of disagreement in the council, it's still making decisions, he said.
Following the vote last week, Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau told councillors there would have to be cuts to the council's capital programme.
However, she said she respected the vote that she did not back.
"Democracy has spoken."
In a response to RNZ on Tuesday, Whanau said she was now singularly focused on delivering a Long-Term Plan that gives Wellingtonians the certainty they deserve.
"I am meeting with councillors this week to work out exactly how we get there, and how we work cohesively together to deliver a Long-Term Plan that does not compromise on our must-haves - that being housing, water and climate resilience - whilst also creating financial prudence for ratepayers."
RNZ has requested for a more specific reponse to the ministers' comments. No reply has been received.
Whanau also declined multiple requests to speak to RNZ.
There were no public council meetings scheduled for today.
Council staff had warned in documents prior to last week's vote that if the council stopped the sale it would have to consider two scenarios.
One would be almost doubling their debt ceiling from $272 million to $500 million and cutting capital project spend by $400 million; the other would be tripling the council's debt ceiling to $750 million and slashing capital spend by $600 million.
It's not the first time the council's leadership had been called into question.
Last month, councillor Diane Calvert called for a Crown observer to be installed on the council for the rest of its term, which ends next year.
The council has also faced its fair share of controversies in recent years such as its $32 million Reading Cinemas deal falling through and exhibitions at its $186 million Tākina convention centre failing to meet financial targets.
