Ports of Auckland will contribute $1.5 million to preserve the Waitematā Harbour

Auckland Ports CEO Roger Gray and Protect Aotea's Kelly Klink. Photo / Whakaata Māori

Ports of Auckland will contribute $100,000 each year for the next 15 years, to a newly formed trust, Protect Aotea.

The contributions will be used to promote initiatives that directly benefit the Waitematā Harbour, with the trust’s main goals being the preservation and rehabilitation of the harbour.

Protect Aotea’s Kelly Klink says while this isn’t the outcome that they had hoped for, the Te Moananui o Toi Restoration Trust will provide the means and resources to fund research and projects that aim to protect and restore the mauri of the moana.

“It’s a great day here at Ports of Auckland,” says Roger Gray. “We’ve managed to come to an agreement with Protect Aotea about what we both can do on harbour health.

Klink says: “We’ve been in the court system for the last two years. This was the best way forward that we could see for Protect Aotea and for us as a people, Ngāti Rehua of Great Barrier Island.”

The trust is a component of the settlement reached with Protect Aotea, which had disputed Ports of Auckland’s receipt of consents for the shipping channel’s deepening.

Two $25,000 scholarships for post-graduate studies pertinent to the trust’s goals will also be funded by the trust.

The original concerns from Protect Aotea and Ngāti Rehua were centred on the disposal of dredged materials from the channel deepening; the Trust also contains a pledge to fund projects to monitor the disposal from a Mātauranga Māori standpoint.