Port of Tauranga modifies container expansion plan in recognition of Māori concerns, but keeps lid on cash offer

Port of Tauranga, NZ's biggest export gateway, is running out of container operation space. Photo / Supplied

Port of Tauranga has gone back to the Environment Court with several new mitigation offers to local Māori as it pursues approval for a container operations expansion - but its cash offer has lifted only slightly.

The NZX-listed port, New Zealand’s largest and its main export gateway, has been called on to pay up to $100 million towards harbour restoration projects and initiatives by one of several local iwi challenging its resource consent application to the Environment Court.

The call, made by a planning consultant representing the Whareroa Marae and other Ngāi Te Rangi parties, came on the final day of a three-week court hearing of the application last month.

Eleven iwi and hapū groups associated with the greater Tauranga harbour raised unresolved concerns about the port and its plans, citing significant adverse effects on the coastal environment, marine species and diversity, and cultural values.

The port’s cash mitigation offer for potential adverse effects at the hearing totalled $3.75m.

In a following reply submission to the court on April 6, the port, in recognition of the cultural concerns of all local Māori, has lifted its monetary offer to $4.025m.

This includes $25,000 a year funding of a proposed health plan for the harbour and an annual payment of $25,000 a year to the harbourside Whareroa Marae for marae infrastructure purposes, and a $2m lump sum payment to Te Awanui Advisory Group for harbour restoration projects.

The port is seeking a 35-year consent. The proposed annual payments would be for the term of the consent.

In a 169-page response to the concerns aired by local iwi, the port has made several significant “adjustments” to its consent application. They include reduced the amount of reclamation at Mount Maunganui, no dredging in the eastern part of the Stella Passage, and offering a range of commitments to co-monitoring and co-reporting on harbour health and increased iwi and hapu involvement in the consents.

The port, whose major shareholder is the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, applied for consent to dredge up to 1.5 million cubic metres from the Stella Passage, 50 per cent or 850,000cu m of which is already consented.

It also wants to construct up to 385m of berth at Sulphur Point with a 1.8ha land reclamation, and to build berths at Mount Maunganui, stretching 530m north and 388m south of the existing tanker berth, with a 2.9ha reclamation. In its April 6 response to the court, it has reduced this from 2.9ha to 1.77ha at Mount Maunganui.

The work is to enable the port to expand its container terminal operations.

It expects to run out of container terminal capacity in two years without the green light for the long-proposed project, now estimated, after continuing regulatory and hearing delays since 2018, to cost $88m.

Tauranga port reduces proposed reclamation at Mount Maunganui in a refreshed resource consent bid. Photo / Supplied

The port’s April 6 response to the court says it wishes to obtain resource consents which recognise the mana of the harbour and places it at the forefront of the consents.

It proposes to do this by facilitating the preparation of a Southern Te Awanui Harbour health plan; establishing a Te Awanui scholarship for local iwi and hapu at Waikato University; completing a scientific baseline study prior to dredging for stage one at Sulphur Point and the bunker barge berth; completing a baseline report of all information on the port zone including sediment characteristics, water quality and ecology ahead of works.

The port in its final submission also calls for the ability to undertake stage one of development at Sulphur Point immediately. This is defined as a maximum wharf expansion length of 285m.

It proposes increased iwi and hapu involvement in the consents with relevant matters to be iwi and hapu-led. This would involve a transitional engagement group for stage one of Sulphur Point development comprising iwi and Whareroa Marae.

“The intention is to provide a mana-enhancing role for iwi and hapu whilst at the same time not creating any sort of secondary approval in relation to implementation of the consent.”

The port proposes inviting the Te Awanui Advisory Group to a strategic planning session at least once a year with the chief executive and port board chair.

The port now awaits the decision of the Environment Court, which may request additional information from all parties before reaching a verdict.

The call at the hearing for the port to pay mitigation of up to $100m came from planning consultant Greg Carlyon, who suggested “the broad-scale costs of mitigation ... add up to somewhere between $75m and $100m over 35 years of the consent”.

That was “something in the order of $3m per annum”, Carlyon said.