Auckland: Looking after our place in the sun

By GEOFF CUMMING

As the backdrop to an America's Cup tourism bonanza, the Hauraki Gulf's value has never been better showcased.

The aquatic playground, studded with islands, has long been prized as the jewel in Auckland's crown: a boaties' paradise, scenic treasure and conservation haven all in one.

But as the nation focused this week on the Cup contest, a long-fought battle over the gulf's future peaked in Wellington.

The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Bill seeks to protect the gulf from the consequences of its growing popularity. It recognises that the gulf is more than a recreation playground by enshrining its "national significance" and the need to "protect and enhance" it.

But the legislation had a stormy passage before Parliament finally passed it yesterday. Suspicion lurks in several quarters about a piece of environmental legislation like no other - the first to cover land, water and the seabed.

Maori concerns surfaced on Tuesday when Labour's Hauraki MP, John Tamihere, left the House to avoid voting on the bill's Treaty of Waitangi clause. He believed it did not give enough regard to the treaty, a view supported by Alliance deputy leader Sandra Lee and other Maori MPs.

Farmers' doubts were reflected when Hunua MP Warren Kyd broke ranks with National to oppose the bill, which previous National conservation ministers Denis Marshall and Nick Smith had championed.

Mr Kyd said the Resource Management Act adequately protected the gulf.

Farmers are worried because the gulf's vast catchment is included in a clause dealing with its management that talks about protecting and enhancing its life-supporting capacity and natural and physical resources.

Auckland Federated Farmers president Colin Bull says city slickers should also be worried.

The bill gives statutory power to a new agency, the Hauraki Gulf Forum, to watch over the islands, waters and catchment - which extends from near Mangawhai Heads in the north to Matamata and Waihi in the south, and includes much of Auckland.

Opponents say this raises the prospect of the forum poking its nose into pollution and runoff issues in city suburbs, as well as restricting forestry and farming.

They point to the bill's requirement that local authorities consider the implications for the gulf when dealing with resource consent applications.

Councils will also have to ensure their district plans and policy statements comply with the act.

Mr Bull says the Resource Management Act is sufficient to protect the gulf from environmental harm, and that regional councils already monitor what goes into waterways.

"It is ridiculous to have agricultural land, forest, residential and industrial land in a marine park."

Like farmers, the fishing industry sees the forum as an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy - one that will provide a fresh avenue for groups who want commercial fishermen out of the gulf.

But architects of the legislation believe such suspicions are an overreaction.

Jim Holdaway, who convened the marine park working party in the early 1990s, says the act simply coordinates management of the gulf.

"The forum has no executive powers and can only make representations to its member authorities - though with the backing of an act of Parliament.

"It brings together in a formal and statutory way all the principal agencies responsible for the management of the gulf."

Mr Holdaway says the catchments are not included in the park, but are merely "indicated" to remind administering agencies of their importance to gulf water quality.

Authorities are already obliged under existing laws to protect water quality and other ecological values.

"The effect of it is to ask landowners to do what most of them are doing anyway - that is, take care about what they pour into water courses - and to ask local authorities to be careful to do what they are supposed to be doing."

The forum's 23 members will include 14 representatives from 12 local and regional councils, six from iwi and one each appointed by the Ministers of Conservation, Fisheries and Maori Affairs.

It will set management objectives while allowing for economic activities, recreation and the special relationship of iwi with the gulf.

Dr Graeme Campbell, a spokesman for Conservation Minister Sandra Lee, says the legislation will ensure consistent standards between local authorities and will allow them to work together.

"If you are going to protect the gulf and maintain water quality, you have to have consistent policies in the catchments."

He says the legislation gives protection of the gulf some statutory clout.

"At its most basic, it's a label. But call a place a national park and people's behaviour changes and they do see it differently.

"The bill reinforces the gulf as a special place, and everyone has a role in ensuring it is special still in a thousand years."