My Account
Two lengthy, complex legislative battles are currently being fought out and both over significant chunks of our natural environment and resources. In both instances, large companies are seeking formal sanction to run industrial-scale activities – and presumably for industrial-sized profits – in areas of remote natural beauty, where few people live, but many visit or admire.
Both are vitally important to local residents, but when viewed through a longer lens, they are also important to the whole of New Zealand.
The first battle is nothing new, though a good few people still don’t realise it’s going on – mining for sand from the seabed along the Pakiri to Mangawhai coastline. Independent commissioners appointed by Auckland Council are considering whether city aggregate firm McCallum Bros should be allowed to renew its consents to dredge a further nine million cubic metres of sand over the next 35 years.
The second is an Environment Court appeal against Waste Management NZ being granted consent to develop a huge landfill at the northern end of the Dome. The 60 hectare tip, with capacity for more than 25 million cubic metres of rubbish, could see 600 truck movements in and out of the site every day.
In both cases, tangata whenua, community and conservation groups, and individuals are standing up to fight something they strongly believe is a serious long-term threat to the environment, as well as wellbeing generally.
While this sounds straightforward on paper, the reality of taking on the twin juggernauts of the Auckland Council legislative planning system and the deep-pocketed applicants’ corporate lawyers is daunting, draining, exhausting and expensive, in both time and money.
Getting to grips with the labyrinthine legal language and protocols is far from easy for most people, especially those who were simply minding their own business before a huge corporate group decided they wanted to profit from a piece of the local landscape.
In recent weeks, witnessing dozens of individuals having to plead to commissioners, judges and lawyers to be left in peace, and for their environment to be left undisturbed, has been sobering to watch, and often moving.
People with extensive local knowledge and history feel weary, disregarded and ignored, just a minor irritant in the way of industrial needs and the tide of development.
As climatic extremes become ever more commonplace, and more green fields are bulldozed every day, these challenges will become more commonplace and possibly more confrontational. Companies who want to exploit the whenua for every cent they can get out of it should be consigned to the pages of history and the responsibility for making this happen ultimately rests with our decision-makers and judiciary. Let’s hope they are up to the task.
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