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The port of Dunedin is managed by Port Otago.
New Zealand ports are watching and waiting as one of their own tries to add a bit of gray to a “black and white” legislation created to preserve coastal protected areas.
Port Otago is trying to push for a more flexible approach to approving port activities that could affect the environment, saying the balance is better than a ban.
The port of Dunedin, which fears it could be closed if no changes are made, has enlisted the Marlborough District Council as legal backer, as the decision could have “serious ramifications” for the nation’s ports.
He argues that New Zealand’s Coastal Policy Statement is being applied “too rigidly” and wants consents for ports to be examined on a case-by-case basis rather than falling under a blanket ban if they affect the environment.
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The case is in the Court of Appeal after five years of legal talks. A date for the hearing has not yet been set.
Speaking to a Local Democracy Reporter before the appeal was filed, Marlborough District Council Advocacy and Practice Integration Manager Barbara Mead said the case was not about getting rid of current legislation, but about refining it. .
“What if we need to install a new navigation system with guiding light buoys and we want it to be placed on seagrass, which is a protected part of the environment?
“If there were no alternative location for the navigation system, then there would be a direct conflict between the use of that port and our international obligation to provide a safe harbor against evasion policies.”
CHLOE RANFORD / LDR
Barbara Mead, director of practice integration and advocacy for the Marlborough District Council, spoke with a Local Democracy Reporter before an appeal was filed on the case.
The council’s own port, Port Marlborough, would likely be in trouble if the rules weren’t relaxed.
“At the moment we are skipping the entire analysis process. It’s like going to the doctor and receiving a bottle of pills, without having your blood pressure taken ”.
Currently, a multi-million dollar upgrade to the Picton Ferry Terminal, which the Marlborough District Council and Port Marlborough were helping lead, was accelerating to help with the economic recovery after the closure.
Port Otago had ports at Port Chalmers and Dunedin.
SCOTT HAMMOND / THINGS
The Marlborough District Council, which owns Port Marlborough, is getting involved in the legal case now rather than waiting for a final decision that it could challenge later.
The dispute erupted in 2016 when the Otago Regional Council published its proposed regional policy statement.
The Environmental Defense Society said the statement did not align with evasion policies and therefore would not protect the environment, which Port Otago contested.
The Environmental Court sided with Port Otago in 2018, saying that the evasion policies did not indicate that ports had to avoid adversely affecting the environment in all cases.
The decision was appealed to the High Court on the grounds that it was an “illegal” violation of policies.
Supplied
A design concept for the new Interislander ferries.
Port Otago and the Marlborough council opposed that appeal, but the High Court dismissed their argument that the Environment Court had “hit the mark.”
The couple tried to take their case to the Supreme Court, which said it was “one with real implications for existing ports,” but it was referred to the Court of Appeal.
It would determine if the Superior Court was wrong.
Mead said that if the court found that ports did not have to avoid negative environmental effects every time they were developed, it would usurp an earlier Supreme Court ruling that “avoid means avoid, there is no gray border.”
CHLOE RANFORD / LDR
The Supreme Court referred the case to the Court of Appeals earlier this year.
The ruling, issued in 2014, focused on a request by King Salmon of New Zealand to install eight new fish farms in the Marlborough Sounds over 35 years.
The council was a “great player” in this case, he said.
The council managed most of the New Zealand coastline. It considered preserving the character of Marlborough’s coastal environment to be a matter of “national importance” under its environmental plan.
Mead said the council saved time and money by getting involved in the legal case now, rather than waiting for a final decision it might not support and then contesting.
