Opinion: Airport redress comes from appeals to Waitangi Tribunal in 2018

Kāpiti Coast Airport. Photo / David Haxton

Weekly column by Kāpiti Mayor K. Gurunathan

I met the Paraparaumu Airport owner, NZ Property Group, in early August 2020. At that first meeting I told them there will be strong community opposition to any closure of the airport. I advised the Templeton Group, as the owner is more commonly known, that any strategic move to wean the community from our attachment to the airport would need an outstanding development vision that would knock our collective socks off.

In this column back on August 12, 2020, I said this: "I think it's only fair to give the new owners a chance to show they are not just carpetbaggers after a quick buck, but people committed to contributing to the common good of Kapiti."

I have always seen the contribution of the airport to the common good of Kāpiti to include the redress of the deep harm done to mana whenua.

Firstly, from the compulsory acquisition of Māori-owned land under the Public Works Act in 1939 for defence purposes, but never returned after the war.

Secondly, from the 1995 sale of the airport into private hands without the statutory Public Works Act offer-back to the original owners.

The Templeton Group claimed to understand the deep angst of the original owners alienated from their ancestral whenua.

I was honoured to be invited by members of Puketapu hapu when the new owners facilitated a spiritual hikoi across the land. The first time in almost 100 years.

But, despite the repeated and tantalising promise of a vision for the future of the airport land, none has been delivered to date.

I understand negotiations between the current and the original owners have been disappointing.

In contrast, an eclectic, high-powered community-based group, Kāpiti Urban Air, has offered a comprehensive vision.

The original owner suddenly has a choice to shape their own future.

I have all along supported the hapu call for the Crown to step in and rectify the grievous damage done to the hapu with deep bonds to the land in the district's biggest urban centre.

The Crown has finally fronted up to concede it had failed to protect the offer-back interest of the original owners embedded in the Public Works Act.

The Crown's revised position places the responsibility of declaring any airport land surplus on the chief executive of Land Information NZ and not on the private airport company.

This significant reset by the Crown would have given hapu members a sense of hope denied them for decades.

It also means any legal tussle in the courts would be between the Crown and the airport owners. A legal fight would have been too costly for the hapu to bear, forcing them into a weaker negotiating position.

This redress has come from their appeals to the Waitangi Tribunal in 2018. The redress has been a very slow process while, over the years, the commercial value of the 134ha block of land has escalated in value as each new owner massaged the planning laws to push it up the speculative escalator.

In 1995, when the National government sold off its interests in regional airports, Paraparaumu Airport was sold to local businessman Murray Cole and his two partners for just $1.6m. He later subdivided a small block with houses in Avion Tce and sold it off to a developer for an estimated $400,000.

Cole then initiated a private plan change and then sold the airport to Auckland developer Sir Noel Robinson for just under $40m. Sir Noel did project a 30-year vision, completed Plan Change 73, created a business park to support the airport, and facilitated Air New Zealand flights.

In 2012, he sold it to the Todd Property Group for an estimated $100m. The Todd Group tried hard to amend Plan Change 73 to compete with Coastlands, but eventually gave up and sold to the present owner with a guesstimate price of $150m. So effectively, between 1995 and 2019, the legally marginalised original owners have seen their land value spiral from $1.6m to $150m. With each iteration earning fat profits for others and putting it further from their ability to get it back.

It's time now for the Crown to deliver opportunities for the hapu to finally regain their ancestral land to provide homes, cutting-edge businesses, and jobs for their people while safeguarding the environment. And partner with others to secure this.