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OPINION
It’s not very far physically from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron to Room 8.2 of the District Court in Tāmaki Makaurau. But it’s an awful long distance away in every other sense.
I took the trip this week from an evening reception to a morning Auckland District Court hearing. On the face of it, a time shift between classes, ethnicities and wealth on full display. But the links are deeper than appearances might suggest.
At the squadron adjacent to the huge city marina an evening event launched a history of the Environmental Defence Society (EDS).
Raewyn Peart’s book Environmental Defenders. Fighting for our natural world vividly captures the people, the cases, the laws and the outcomes which mark the EDS’ half century. To anyone who cares about the quality of our natural environment, the EDS is a beacon of dogged, skilled, legal work to protect, matched by a constant and high-quality research output on matters of policy.
It has its successes and defeats in court and Parliament and it has inspired others to object, question and challenge developments of many types which impinge on existing or justified rights or interests.
No doubt it would be regarded in some quarters as a source of “judicial activism” or “costly delays”. But we have much to thank it for (ideally in ongoing support) particularly as some of its work is undone by those who want to build, cut down and expand without due regard to environmental cost. The EDS is fighting wilful trespass on to Te Taiao.
The Auckland District Court. Photo / Nick Reed
Next morning I visited a court process in which a group of activists are fighting trespass charges of their own.
Ironically enough, they arise from another marina, this one imposed on Pūtiki Bay against many objections but managing to get its way through legal approvals. This is a significant place for Ngāti Paoa, who hold mana whenua there and is integral to their story, something which the commonly used name of Kennedy Pt rather obscures.
I was fortunate to hear one of the defendants, Emily Māia Weiss, who was a leader in the widely publicised protests and site occupation, explain the background and events in court.
The marina at Pūtiki Bay.
The case proceeds as I write this. You can probably guess my views on an appropriate outcome. Whatever the outcome on the specific charges the deeper issue is one of tikanga. Experts on that and how events worked out are being presented.
There is a real clash of values, rights and even of reality embedded in this.
To those now charged with trespass, the real imposition and incursion is that imposed by the development. That is the reality they see for tangata (people), for the whenua (land), moana (sea) and taonga species such as kororā (little penguin).
They see values and right arising from that reality which are entitled to protection. Yes, there are laws with which certain incursive actions trespassing on those rights may comply. But they must be open to challenge.
This is a continuation of arguments running all the way back to European enclosure movements centuries ago privatising common lands for private benefit by force, or a mixture of force and law.
Colonisation adapted and adopted the principle. Issues such as those at Potiki are a continuation. For a dominant culture or class, when you have a “right” which the state will help you enforce, then you feel you are right in a wider sense.
Rob Campbell is a professional director and investor. Photo / Michael Craig
But that does not make other rights disappear. Not rights of the natural environment and its value not only to people (some or all) but intrinsic to itself. A prior right if ever there was one, prior even to the species. Nor the rights of indigenous people, increasingly and globally recognised and here enshrined in Te Tiriti.
You may buy land, fence it, develop it or whatever but you do not expunge a right held by mana whenua. That is widely recognised and respected.
Our issue should not be one of enforcement, but one of mediating and agreeing those rights within the right spirit. The defenders whether in court or the street or the foreshore or ocean are defending all of our common rights along with Te Taiao.
After all, we are part of it.
Rob Campbell is a professional director and investor. He is chancellor at AUT, chairman of Ara Ake, chairman of NZ Rural Land, and an adviser for Dave Letele’s BBM charity. He is also the former chairman of Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand.
