The long-contested proposal for a Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary has finally been scrapped. Photo / NZME
The long-contested proposal for a Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary has finally been scrapped. Photo / NZME
The Government has given up trying to establish the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, with Cabinet scrapping the bill proposing the marine reserve.
It’s almost a decade since former Prime Minister John Key first announced plans for a 620,000sq km sanctuary at the United Nations in New York in 2015.
Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said in a statement Cabinet had decided to pull the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill from Parliament’s order paper, stopping further progress on establishing the sanctuary.
He argued the current marine reserve around the Kermadec Islands, which extended 12 nautical miles, was “ample” to preserve the environment and marine life.
“Making 15 per cent of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone a no-go area for Kiwis making their living from the sea, including iwi who received the Kermadecs fishing quota in a 1992 Treaty of Waitangi settlement, makes absolutely no sense,” Jones said.
“This is a coalition Government focused on driving export-led growth by making the most of New Zealand’s natural resources, whether they are contained on our land or at sea.”
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds claimed the commercial activities occurring around the islands posed “limited risk to its marine environment” thanks to the current reserve and “stringent regulations” in place.
“I am confident that the Kermadec Islands, which already have in place a protected marine environment, will continue to flourish without the further expansion of the reserve,” Simmonds said.
After the sanctuary was first proposed by Key, iwi with fishing rights in the area objected to the lack of consultation and lack of recognition of indigenous fishing and Treaty rights in the area - and Te Ohu Kaimoana took legal action.
Last year, former Environment Minister David Parker put up a further proposal after years of working with Te Ohu Kaimoana and the iwi involved – but 42 out of 45 iwi organisations rejected it outright. Only one voted in favour of it, while two abstained.
Accelerating the sanctuary was an item within National’s policy manifesto it took to the election but it didn’t make it into either of its coalition agreements with Act or New Zealand First.
Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced the halt to plans for a sanctuary. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Greens MP Teanau Tuiono believed the decision was an example of the “tail”, Jones’ NZ First, “wagging the dog”, National.
“Who’s in control? It doesn’t look like it’s Christopher Luxon.
“He’s trampling over the legacy of his own party.”
He said his party was in favour of working with iwi to find a solution that would honour the party’s commitment to support biodiversity.
Te Pāti Māori MP Takuta Ferris doubted the Government would have ever managed to secure the sanctuary given it had been almost a decade since it was first announced.
“The attitude to the [sanctuary] is fundamentally in the wrong place, so it’s probably a good idea that they give it away.”
Ferris believed iwi opposed previous proposals because there had been insufficient consultation.
He was supportive of sanctuaries but said they needed to be paired with regular monitoring.
Victoria University marine biology expert Professor Jonathan Gardner siad not having the sanctuary was a “massive loss for marine conservation efforts”.
“Establishment of a sanctuary here would have been a major achievement for New Zealand and would have added to international marine conservation efforts to establish a series of very large (and often remote) marine protected areas in the world’s oceans.”
He also claimed Jones was misrepresenting the number of Kiwis who made their living from the area, which he said was “very few”.
“Development of activities such as commercial fishing and mining will harm the region’s marine biodiversity (such as deep-sea habitat-forming corals) and, depending on the scale of these activities, will potentially lead to irreparable damage and loss.”
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
