Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Exactly one year ago at 7.30 am I visited some of my friends who had gone camping on a Crown road and Public land by the inner waters of Whangamata. Today at 7.30 I went to the same place but it was now a vast construction site that extends from the land into coastal marine area. The area is unrecognisable from what it was a year ago.

The reason for the camp was to protest the building of a marina on this site. The idea for a marina was an old one and had been argued in the abstract since the late 1970’s. It started in 1996 when the New Zealand Government processed an application to develop a marina from the Whangamata Marina Society. From this point onwards the decision whether to have a marina or not has gone through the Community, District and Regional hearings, the Environment Court, the High Court, Parliament and the Ministries of the Environment and the Ministry of Conservation. During this process an estimated $20 million dollars was spent by the Crown’s (NZ Government) environmental management systems. This $20 million was used by the Crown to employ politicians and educated people in the areas of planning, science, engineering, and the law. The money for these people came from taxation.

In December 2006 the Minister of Environment granted permission for the development of a marina at Whangamata. The developers have said they will spend up to $20 million dollars. The developers are operating under the Friendly Societies Act. Where the money is coming from and how it moves is vague.

The construction of the marina began on the 1st of October 2008. The abstract arguments have now finished and the actual is taking place. The Crowns environmental management systems and the developer’s submissions to the Crown would from now on be tested in the real world.

The question is still to be determined. Those campers; were they there to bear witness. to finish something or to start something or all of these things?