Minister's marina meetings queried

Conservation Minister Chris Carter's decision to hold private meetings after the Environment Court had ruled on a marina application was "extraordinary", the judge considering the case said yesterday.

Justice John Fogarty is conducting a judicial review of Mr Carter's decision in March to veto resource consents for a $10 million 205-berth marina at Whangamata.

Under the Resource Management Act, Mr Carter can endorse or reject coastal resource consents after the Environment Court makes its recommendation.

The court recommended consents be granted for the marina, but Mr Carter vetoed it because its carpark would destroy a saltmarsh and he was concerned about Maori access to shellfish beds.

Justice Fogarty said he was surprised that the minister agreed to meetings with people who had been heard by the court and those who had not been.

"It does seem quite extraordinary," he said.

Under the spotlight is a series of meetings Mr Carter held in the Coromandel township on January 30.

The development's backer, the Whangamata Marina Society, sought the judicial review of Mr Carter's veto.

Justice Fogarty said he accepted Mr Carter did not operate in a cocoon, and that members of the public and the media would raise important issues with him.

But he had difficulties grasping how Mr Carter could then - as he has maintained he did - disregard all that he had seen and heard during his trip to Whangamata when making his decision.

"I mean no disrespect to the minister, but I'm not sure you can."

He also questioned whether Mr Carter could separate his obligations as a politician to listen to people, from his "technocrat" responsibilities as the consenting authority deciding whether the marina would go ahead.

Crown lawyer Bronwyn Arthur said Mr Carter had paid conscientious attention to the briefing papers he had received from the Department of Conservation, and been careful to discount anything he had heard during the January 30 meetings.

Aware of the marina society's concerns about those meetings, he had sent it a copy of a draft briefing paper for its comments before he made his decision.

The hearing is due to conclude today.