Flavell: Asking the people should be foremost

Te Koutu resident Natalie Richards with her son, Steven, objecting against a proposed hotel to be built in her street. Photo/Stephen Parker

After nine years in my Eruera St office, I will be relocating to new premises on Old Taupo Rd in the coming weeks.

My current office will be closed as of this Friday and I hope to be in the new office by the end of October. The new offices will be much easier to access, so my team and I are looking forward to the move.

Te Koutu

I'm no stranger to the work of the Te Koutu Community Action Group over the past few years. Their goal has been to create a safer environment for the whanau and tamariki who live in Te Koutu and I know they are working well towards this goal. So I was not surprised to be contacted by them following the announcement of a large hotel complex planned in the area.

The group tells me they are not opposed to progression for the city, or for tourism - in fact most of them have grown up living and breathing the tourism industry here in Rotorua and still are by performing, hosting and working in the industry. One of the key issues they raise is that the hotel is proposed on a street that has no allowance for tourist accommodation.

That the street is zoned residential, low-density housing - and yet they are having to defend their community from commercialism of this nature. It begs the question - why do councils go to the lengths they do to define boundaries and zoning, if they will simply allow applications like this in non-zoned areas to be even considered. It defeats the purpose of having zones doesn't it? Rightly or wrongly, the council has a process to follow with this application.

I would have thought that on receiving an application for a hotel of this size on a site literally on the border of two predominantly Maori communities, there would have been consultation with tangata whenua in the first instance. There are five marae within one kilometre of this proposed site, so it is pretty obvious Maori are an affected party. It is at times like this we realise what an important role the Te Arawa Partnership Board will play in the future.

Submissions close tomorrow and I hope the concerns raised by this community result in some dialogue between the parties.

Manu Korero

Last week, among all the other competitors in Porirua for the National Manu Korero speech competition, four rangatahi stood to represent Te Arawa and each delivered powerful korero. They are Te Kaiamo Rogers-Smith, Rakaea Trotman from Te Wharekura o Ngati Rongomai along with Anipatene Biddle of Te Kura o Te Koutu and Te Mahara Swanson-Hall of John Paul College. They all did very well, with Rakaea placing second in his category. Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of hosting the students from their kura in Parliament and the Beehive. It was an awesome day.

I want to congratulate each of you for what you have achieved on a national stage and encourage you to continue with public speaking, particularly in te reo. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou katoa.

I welcome your feedback. Email mpwaiariki@parliament.govt.nz, or call (0508) 924 274.
¦ Te Ururoa Flavell is MP for Waiariki and co-leader of the Maori Party.