Dialogue: People power comes alive on Coromandel

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Whitianga was abuzz with people power. Locals overflowed on to the street outside the town hall to condemn Conservation Minister Sandra Lee and Government regulation gone wild. About 1000 people turned out - not bad for a town of 3500.

Whitianga hadn't seen a meeting like it for years, and it was all about its support for a big-business venture that will change the face of the town.

A new law had just put Hopper Developments back to square one in its plan for a $100 million, 1500-section canal development that will double Whitianga's size over 25 years. It had already cost Hopper more than five years and $2.5 million negotiating its way through the consent process.

Locals believed it would give the town a big jobs boost and economic lift. Although the town would have grown anyway, they argued that the Whitianga Waterways plan prevented ad-hoc urban sprawl.

The meeting sparked rapid action that night when Alliance leader Jim Anderton came to the rescue of his beleaguered minister by announcing a quick law change. That amendment to the problem legislation, the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act, is now on a slow track through Parliament but seems assured of having the numbers. The public, it seems, still has clout.

Whitianga and Hopper Developments did everything right and had a fair amount of luck in what was a complex and highly political situation. The target of their criticism, Sandra Lee, was a minister from the smaller coalition party struggling for some political air midway through the electoral cycle.

The Alliance is vulnerable and locals were not slow to realise the potential of climbing into a party whose leader spouts about regional development. The project was a perfect example of the regional development Mr Anderton is so keen to promote.

Whitianga is in the Coromandel electorate held by Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons. Perceived by many in scenic Mercury Bay as anti-development because she's a greenie, she also had to be seen by her constituents as pro-development because of the boost the project would give.

Local outrage was sparked when Ms Lee sent Hopper's application for two coastal activity permits back to the Environment Waikato hearings committee that originally heard the project's resource consents in 1999. Legal advice forced her to send the permits back because the committee had not considered the marine park act - which was not law at the time it was considered.

Whitianga people labelled this a piece of retrospective nonsense - and with good reason. But the Department of Conservation argued that her consideration of the coastal permits could start only once appeals were out the way.

Complicating the issue further, the hapless Hopper was caught until March in an inter-iwi conflict, its roots going back hundreds of years, over who has rightful tangata whenua status in Mercury Bay. Paeroa-based iwi Ngati Tamatera and local iwi Ngati Hei both claimed that status, and it was Ngati Tamatera who appealed to the High Court and later the Court of Appeal before dropping the case in March because of cost.

DoC argues that that was when the clock started ticking again for Ms Lee to consider the coastal permits. This argument impressed no one.

Meanwhile, the local MP with a 250-vote majority had a dilemma - or so it seemed to a cynical Whitianga. While Jeanette Fitzsimons told the Herald she supported the project, she made no such admission in a statement read to the 1000 people at the protest meeting. She couldn't be at the meeting because she had decided to stay in Wellington in case the issue came up in Parliament. But Ms Fitzsimons defended Ms Lee by saying the minister had little discretion and was acting under advice over the "legal anomaly" thrown up by the marine park act.

The Greens don't hesitate in criticising other legal activity when it suits them - such as genetic engineering projects. The scientists in charge of that research at Hamilton's Ruakura Research Centre were also acting legally when they started the experiments on cows that the Greens condemn. The irony was noted in Whitianga, and her lack of vigour in chasing the "legal anomaly" was also noted.

In the meantime, Hopper and Whitianga continue to do what they have done well over the past few years - wait some more, this time for a law change that will finally allow Whitianga to move ahead.