Brian Rudman: Foreshore-row agitators should wake up

The redneck worry-warts scaring themselves silly about imaginary Maori takeovers of the foreshore would be better off protesting against the real thing. Last Saturday, Corporal Wayne Mapp MP and his cardie-clad Dad's Army were fruitlessly scouring Takapuna Beach for rebellious tangata whenua to go boo at.

Let's hope Dr Mapp and his ageing hell-raisers reassemble at Westhaven Marina this Saturday to protest against a much more genuine threat to their free access to the foreshore. I'm talking of Ports of Auckland's just-announced plans to sell off one of Auckland's prime harbour edge recreational sites to the highest bidder.

Port company chairman Neville Darrow slipped the news into the middle of yesterday's announcement of annual results. "Our plan is to put in motion a sales process for Westhaven Marina and Hobson West Marina ... We will initiate an international tender process within the next few months."

Not only are they selling off this publicly owned waterfront jewel, but they're deliberately seeking rich foreigners to hand it over to. If Dr Mapp thinks some make-believe bogey-rangitira of Takapuna is a threat to his paddling rights, how much more threatening is a real live, hard-nosed overseas billionaire.

It's hard to imagine he or she having much care for such arcane concepts as the Queen's Chain or public access.

The port company's "divestment" plans have been an open secret on the waterfront for some time. Berth holders and yacht clubs have been discussing the setting up of a trust to take over ownership.

These are the people, who, over the years, have been forced by the port company and, before that, the harbour board to take out debentures to pay for marina expansion.

Having paid for the present first-class facility, they're now faced with the prospect of its being sold off to the highest bidder. Whether they will be able to match overseas bids is a risk Aucklanders should find unacceptable.

The only good news was Mr Darrow's awful timing. It's moments like this when you have to wonder whether there is, after all, a god up there pulling the strings. A god with a great sense of the ridiculous.

How else to explain the disastrous timing of the port's announcement? It came on the same day that the Herald front page blared out "Foreshore belongs to all," in a headline covering the Government's plans to declare the foreshore and seabed off limits to private ownership.

Prime Minister Helen Clark added: "The foreshore and seabed should be public domain, with open access and use for all New Zealanders".

Westhaven seems to fit that bill perfectly, skirting, as it does, the bottom of the St Marys Bay cliffs, betwixt land and sea. We're told that under the Government's plans, where the foreshore is already in private ownership, the Crown will either legislate or negotiate to ensure public access.

In the case of Westhaven and the adjacent Hobson West Marina, they're already in what is as good as public ownership, since 80 per cent of the company is owned by Infrastructure Auckland on behalf of the people of Auckland.

Just how Infrastructure Auckland sees it as part of its stewardship to allow the sale of this priceless asset I don't know. My inquiries yesterday went unanswered.

But as far as the good of Auckland - as opposed to the narrow commercial interests of the port company - is concerned, the move is pure lunacy.

Currently, Auckland City, the port company and Viaduct Harbour Holdings, the largest private landowners in the area, are drawing up 100-year plans for the development of the area north of Victoria Park called the Tank Farm and western reclamation. This land abuts Westhaven.

The dream is to develop the whole swathe of waterfront land as a mixed-use precinct, including parkland and other public spaces. On a good day, you can imagine a 21st-century showpiece. Most of the time though, you look east to the disaster of lost opportunities which is the Ngati Whatua land by the old railway station and wait resignedly for more of the same all the way to Westhaven.

Hocking off Westhaven to the highest bidder is a quick first step to making that nightmare a reality.

Westhaven is not just the marina, it's also the promenades and fishing spots all the way round the coast to Shelly Beach Rd. There's a mix down there of port, Transit New Zealand and public reserve land as well as of beach. The port company gained ownership of its land and assets following the abolition of the Auckland Harbour Board by Government decree in the late 1980s.

It was only entitled to land which it claimed was required for port-related purposes. Harbour board land which was not needed for such purposes went to Auckland City.

Having now decided it erroneously claimed this land in the late 1980s land grab, there must be a case for the port handing it back to the public stewardship of Auckland City where it should have gone in the first place.

This is what happened recently with the America's Cup village. It was the right decision in that case and the same principle applies here.

This has been publicly owned land for more than a century. It is also foreshore, which the Government has just declared belongs to us all for ever.

Atten-shun Corporal Mapp. Your country needs you NOW.