Brian Rudman: Okay, Mr Banks, let's say it was our idea

I usually end up on the side of the angels rather than the winners when I take on a cause, but with the suggestion that Kaikoura Island be Aucklanders' tribute to Sir Peter Blake, I seem to have hit the jackpot.

The only opponents are the small cabal of suits who came up with the official glass coffin proposal. Men such as Auckland City's mayor, John Banks, and recreation committee chairman, Scott Milne, Minister for Sport Trevor Mallard and Wellington-based officials from Te Papa museum.

They met in secret and decided, without consulting those of us expected to pay, that this would be our tribute. We don't agree. The public vote is for Kaikoura.

There are glimmers of second thoughts in the glass coffin camp.

Mr Milne now has a bob each way, saying that "personally" he thinks Kaikoura Island is a "fabulous idea". And while Wellingtonian Mr Mallard backed the ship-in-a bottle concept, his Cabinet colleague Aucklander Chris Carter, the Conservation Minister, says Sir Peter would have preferred the "living memorial" of Kaikoura Island.

Mr Milne objects to council support for the Kaikoura project because city money should be spent for the benefit of city ratepayers and "I don't see too many kids from Glen Innes or Avondale being able to get to Kaikoura Island ... whereas I do see tens of thousands of kids being subsidised to go through the Blake memorial at the maritime museum and being inspired and educated and informed."

He has more faith in the museum experience than I do. He also seems to forget that Kaikoura Island is within the boundaries of Auckland City. So any ratepayers' funds would be spent within the city.

The key thing about the Kaikoura proposal is to let kids from Glen Innes, Avondale, Otara or wherever practise the conservation message that Sir Peter dedicated his life to.

Following Mr Milne's comments, teacher Catherine Staig contacted me to disagree with his remarks.

"I taught at a secondary school in Otara two years ago. Myself and my Year 9 (Form 3) class spent a day visiting Motutapu Island to plant trees. They raised the money to fund the trip themselves through selling icecream and had a fantastic day learning about conservation. Imagine the value added if they had known they were doing this in Peter Blake's name.

"I strongly support the acquisition of a conservation island in Sir Peter Blake's memory. There is no point in being inspired without the practical opportunity to put the inspiration to use."

One of the advantages of the proposal is the chance it would create for young Aucklanders to experience the gulf environment that set Sir Peter off on his yachting and conservation adventures.

We forget - or are not aware - just how few young citizens of the City of Sails have actually travelled to one of the gulf islands, or even been on a boat.

Antony Backhouse, project co-ordinator of the Wesley Primary School-based "I have a dream" project, says that when he organised a trip to Rangitoto Island for 9- and 10-year-olds, only five or six of the 36 had been on a ferry before. He thinks going to Kaikoura to plant trees would be a "great experience".

As I said, the only opposition is from the originators of the glass coffin idea.

In particular, Mayor Banks is taking the thing quite personally. People who write or email him supporting Kaikoura receive a terse note from his long-time assistant Trish Wanden declaring: "Mr Rudman is poorly informed and did not bother to take the time to pick up the telephone and find out what the Sir Peter Blake Memorial is all about.

"Sir Peter Blake's wife and family have been fully involved in the decision-making of a suitable memorial and are totally supportive of these endeavours."

This message goes even to those who don't invoke my name.

Mr Banks told a colleague when she rang about Kaikoura that he was not discussing anything proposed by "that wanker", meaning me.

It's upsetting to think that the mayor's high regard for me might be affecting Kaikoura Island's chances. If I thought Sunday Star-Times columnist Hamish Keith's suggestion for getting the mayor onside would work, I'd try it.

He reckons I should persuade Mr Banks it was his idea in the first place. Given his rapid conversion on things such as Britomart, it's worth a shot.

But that might upset regional councillor Mike Lee, who, I have since discovered, came up with the idea a good year before I did, in a letter to Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Whether Mr Banks is likely to follow Mr Lee any more than me is a moot point. Why don't we just agree it's one of those ideas that is so obvious we all thought of it simultaneously.

The glass coffin proponents fall back on it being the choice of Sir Peter's family. With respect, this is supposed to be Aucklanders' and New Zealanders' tribute to Sir Peter. Surely we should have the final word.

* On Monday I claimed George Fowlds was a former Mayor of Auckland. He was not. His father, Sir George Fowlds, was a left-wing Liberal at the turn of the 20th century, MP for City of Auckland and then Grey Lynn, and a Cabinet minister.