A high-profile Maori trust has a multimillion-dollar shareholding in a construction company which has been hit with one of New Zealand's biggest fines for water pollution.
WGS Construction was one of three companies fined a total of more than $90,000 in the Auckland District Court for environmental damage during construction of the Westgate shopping mall at the end of the Auckland Northeastern Motorway.
Judge W.J.M. Treadwell said that although it could not be proved exactly what damage illegal runoff from the 12ha Westgate site had caused, "common sense" said it was significant.
He noted the offending continued over six months in the winter of 1998 despite a court order to stop. The stream that bore the brunt of the soil-clogged water which poured from the earthworks was "ecologically significant."
Labour MP John Tamihere said 148 jobs, about half the workforce of WGS Construction, were filled by Maori because of the trust's shareholding.
Mr Tamihere is listed as a director of WGS Construction and the Waipareira Trust, in West Auckland, is a major shareholder in a company called Westland, which wholly owns WGS Construction.
The charges were brought by the Auckland Regional Council under the 1991 Resource Management Act.
Huge fine hits trust company
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.