Shane Jones says the new coalition Government will smooth the path for major infrastructure projects. Photo / Tania Whyte
Shane Jones says the new coalition Government will smooth the path for major infrastructure projects. Photo / Tania Whyte
New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones says local hapū have “no business holding companies to ransom” and the Port of Tauranga’s long-delayed container terminal expansion is a top example of what is wrong with New Zealand’s resource management.
The Minister of Regional Development said hapū “had no divine rightto rule over development of the country”.
“This is New Zealand’s largest interface port, and I’m advised the outstanding issue is the inability to narrow the gap with the local hapū. Hapū have no business in New Zealand holding companies to ransom.
“I’m in the business of cutting the bureaucracy and foolish law-making which has caused a tiny group of hapū to believe they can hold the rest of us to ransom.”
The port, New Zealand’s biggest and busiest, is still awaiting an Environment Court decision on its resource consent application to extend its container wharf, nearly a year after the court hearing. The NZX-listed company waited nearly five years to get that application to the stage of a hearing in the Environment Court after Beehive knockbacks and hearing delays.
The application was challenged by 11 local iwi and hapū groups.
Paora Stanley, chief executive of the largest iwi group Ngāi Te Rangi, in a written response to Jones’ comments, said: “Shane Jones ... has forgotten about some of the basic principles of natural justice.”
“Even the smallest of hapū have a right to have a voice. It is the court - and only the court, and not Shane Jones - [which] determines the veracity.”
Ngāi Te Rangi chief executive Paora Stanley. Photo / Mead Norton
Jones told the Herald parties in the new coalition Government had agreed to a new strategic resource consenting scheme to deal with large and “critically important” industry applications around infrastructure.
“Our Government is getting rid of [Labour MP] David Parker’s new environment legislation and restoring the RMA [Resource Management Act] but also retaining a small part of Parker’s efforts, which [is] the fast-track process.
“What’s driving our thinking is, number one, we desperately need to give confidence, not only to industry but to infrastructure, that there is a pipeline of projects, and one way is to strip away the uncertainty of time and costs to get consents to undertake major projects.”
The Port of Tauranga project failed to get fast-track approval from the previous Labour government.
The country’s main export gateway expects to run out of container terminal space within two years without the green light for the project, the cost of which, after continuing regulatory and hearing delays, has ballooned from $68.5 million in 2018 to an anticipated $90m-plus today.
Even if the court judgment came out by Christmas, an appeal by either side is expected. That could take another year or two. Construction and associated work will take more than a year.
Jones said the new Government would take “a different approach” to major infrastructure projects because of their importance for New Zealand’s growth.
“I am a pro-growth politician, an economically-orientated politician.
“I tend to regard matters pertaining to blind frogs and hapū as things you have to weigh up between economics and community values, but I do not subscribe to the notion that a particular value [of] a blind frog should actually trump the need of five million people and a $330 billion economy to grow - particularly given the large degree of indebtedness.”
The NZX-listed port, which is 54 per cent owned by Bay of Plenty Regional Council, made its final submissions to the court in April. The Environment Court states that it aspires to issue judgments within three months of final submissions from parties, although sometimes it can’t achieve this due to the pressure of work.
Andrea Fox joined the Herald as a senior business journalist in 2018 and specialises in writing about the dairy industry, agribusiness, exporting and the logistics sector and supply chains.
