Tauranga port wharf extension court case adjourned to 2023

Aerial shot of containers stacked at Port of Tauranga at Sulphur Point. Photo / Mead Norton

Whether Tauranga port's multimillion-dollar wharf extension can go ahead will not be decided until next year after a scheduled court hearing was adjourned.

Consent for the expansion was supposed to be the subject of a 10-day Environment Court hearing starting today.

However, it has been put off until 2023. The reason for the adjournment is yet to be revealed by the court.

The Port of Tauranga has applied for consent for a 385m wharf extension and 1.8ha land reclamation at Sulphur Point, as well as wharf extensions of 530m north, and 388m south, of the tanker berth and a 2.9ha reclamation on its Mt Maunganui wharves.

The company says the associated extension to the shipping channel covers 14.4ha and involves dredging up to 1.8 million cubic metres of the sea floor.

The hearing was supposed to be across two venues - Tauranga on the Waterfront motel and Whareroa Marae.

A panel of two judges, chief Environment Court Judge David Kirkpatrick and Māori Land Judge Caren Fox and two independent commissioners were set to hear the case which skipped the usual process of regional council hearings after the Port argued a decision on the proposed extension was an urgent national priority.

"The port wishes to progress the resource consents as soon as possible, given the urgent need or capacity in New Zealand's supply chain and Port of Tauranga Limited 's crucial role in resolving this as New Zealand's busiest port," court documents stated.

The company said New Zealand was looking at "severe" capacity constraints on exports within a few years.

If its application is successful, the port estimates the project will take nearly three years to complete, and cost $68.5 million.

An independent economist estimated the project could create 368 jobs in the construction phase and more than 81 permanent jobs after completion.

The company, which is 54 per cent owned by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and publicly listed, says it will run out of capacity within three years if the extension did not go ahead as the new development would allow the port to host several large ships at once.

It notified the Tauranga Airport Authority and iwi about its plans in 2021. Iwi groups made two submissions in opposition to the plans while the Tauranga Airport Authority submitted in support.

A non-notified submission was also made by Ngāti He.

The Ministry of Environment declined a previous Covid-19 fast-track application saying it was more appropriate for the project to go through a standard consenting process as there was a fair expectation submitters should be involved.

The consent's conditions included restrictions on dredging and the development of a Kaimoana Restoration Programme to mitigate the effects on local seafood especially the pipi beds, and extra funding for research.