“Clearly ludicrous”: NZ court halts port project over drafting error

A judicial review of the Port of Tauranga’s fast-track application for its Stella Passage development has been upheld by New Zealand's High Court, putting the project on hold. The court determined that the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) should not have accepted the port's application because the project was not described precisely as required in the legislation's schedule.

As a result, the fast-track panel that was due to commence on September 1 has been suspended pending further direction from the court. Port of Tauranga stated that the issue was caused by, "a few words missing from a schedule due to a drafting oversight".

Leonard Sampson, the port's Chief Executive, described the delay as "clearly ludicrous" for a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the New Zealand economy.

He stated that the port is currently turning away shipping lines that want to call at Tauranga. "In the last month, the Port has had to turn away a proposed new service to the Americas that would have provided New Zealand importers and exporters with an estimated $65 million to $90 million per annum in international freight savings," said Sampson.

The port is now urging the government to act quickly to rectify the wording in the fast-track legislation to resolve the situation. The Environment Court has previously established that the project's environmental impact would be minor, but the port has been unable to reach an agreement with opposing iwi and hapū parties on the appropriate level of mitigation for cultural impacts.