Details of Sir Ray Avery's plan to save one million babies.
LifePod incubator inventor Sir Ray Avery says planning delays could scuttle his planned charity concert at Eden Park because he has been given a "drop-dead" August deadline to confirm the headline star.
He said the unnamed international star's promoter needs to confirm the venue by the end of August, but the Environment Court is not expected to rule until October on objections to a resource consent to allow the night-time event at Eden Park on Waitangi Day next year.
National MP Paul Goldsmith has urged the Government to "knock some heads together" to avoid the need to go to the Environment Court.
But a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern suggested Avery should look at other possible venues.
"The Prime Minister is really supportive of the cause and what the concert is trying to achieve," she said.
"While it isn't a Government issue, she does note there are other local concert venues and is sure a solution could be found."
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark, who lives close to Eden Park, has lodged one of 127 objections to the resource consent, calling it a "Trojan horse" for the Eden Park Trust's push to hold more night-time events at the park.
Helen Clark says Eden Park's application to hold the LifePod concert at Eden Park is a "Trojan horse" for more night-time events at the park. File photo
Avery said the international star would probably still come to New Zealand if the Eden Park event collapsed, but his charity would not get any of the proceeds if the star's concert moved to Mt Smart Stadium where concerts are permitted.
Mt Smart's capacity of 30,000 fans is only half Eden Park's 60,000.
"The promoter has done a good deal with us and we can clip the ticket, literally," Avery said.
"It's fine for someone to say we can pick it up and take it to Mt Smart, but if no one intervenes, the promoter will go to Mt Smart because this guy is coming to Australia, and we will get nothing.
"The promoter didn't want us to say the [star's] name because he didn't want to lock the event into a venue, because if he gets Eden Park he can make 30 per cent more than Mt Smart.
"So he said, 'I'm going to back you guys, but I have a cut-off date of the end of August for making a decision.'"
Avery said 60 of the 127 objectors to the Eden Park resource consent had asked to be heard at the Environment Court hearing, meaning the Eden Park Trust would face heavy court costs as well as a likely drawn-out hearing.
"I've heard figures of $1.5 million. That just doesn't stack up with the revenue that we could make from the concert," he said.
He hopes to raise $4m from the concert and an associated telethon, which will include events around the country in places associated with Kiwi inventions such as Richard Pearse's early aeroplane and Rocket Lab's launch site at Mahia.
Avery said he was inspired by a UMR poll for the Eden Park Trust today which found that 91 per cent of Aucklanders support the event going ahead at Eden Park.
"The promoter is aware of the positivity of the local people, so he is trying to bend and stretch as far as he can to accommodate us, but he has given us a drop-dead day," he said.
"The latest poll gives him security that he can get the tick in a shorter period of time, but it's getting tricky once you get into October because then you get into the Christmas down-time."
Mark Donnelly says the Resource Management Act is about effects and is "not a democratic system". File photo
Avery said he had already tried talking to former Auckland city councillor Mark Donnelly of the Eden Park Neighbours' Association, which represents many of the objectors.
"I probably had about eight meetings with Mark Donnelly before we announced it," he said.
"We showed them videos showing this baby would have died if it hadn't had an incubator. We had about 10 neighbourhood people there.
"They were just hostile. They told me I was stupid, an idiot and all sorts of things. I can't change their minds, unfortunately."
Donnelly, who is on holiday with his family in Hawaii, responded to a Herald enquiry by email: "No comment - he thinks Auckland children?"
Commenting earlier on the UMR poll, Donnelly said the poll used "push-polling" techniques which pushed respondents to support the concert by telling them that state housing might be built on the Eden Park site if the stadium became financially unviable.
"The people who put submissions in are directly affected, like the parents of a 12-month-old baby who live 160 metres from the speakers," he said.
"The Resource Management Act is about effects. It's not a democratic system, it's based on effects."
