{"id":429893,"date":"2026-05-16T01:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/429893\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T01:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T01:45:11","slug":"port-of-tauranga-to-compensate-iwi-for-wasted-effort-after-aborting-resource-consent-application-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/429893\/","title":{"rendered":"Port of Tauranga to compensate iwi for \u2018wasted effort\u2019 after aborting resource consent application"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is the latest in a long-running dispute over the proposed expansion of the ports of Tauranga<\/a>, which included land reclamation, wharf extensions and additional dredging.<\/p>\n

The case began in 2021 when POTL lodged a resource consent application with the Bay of Plenty Regional Council to expand its operations at Sulphur Pt<\/a> and Mount Maunganui.<\/p>\n

The council determined that limited notification to iwi and hap\u016b was not required.<\/p>\n

Despite that, several iwi groups entered the process, and POTL funded close to $1 million in legal and technical support for some participants.<\/p>\n

But the court found this funding did not change the fact that iwi were obliged to participate in a direct\u2011referral hearing they did not initiate.<\/p>\n

\"POTLPOTL have been seeking to expand for several years. Photo \/ Port of Tauranga<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that the applicants would not have incurred these costs had POTL not initiated the direct referral process,\u201d Judge Kirkpatrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe level of expenditure associated with preparing evidence could have been substantially reduced had POTL consulted with tangata whenua in preparing its application.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case proceeded to a hearing in early 2023, which ran for almost a month, and was followed by two interim decisions.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, the Sulphur Pt expansion was provisionally approved pending revised conditions.<\/p>\n

But before those conditions were revised, POTL withdrew its RMA application in May last year and instead pursued a fast-track approval.<\/p>\n

That application is before the fast-track expert panel.<\/p>\n

The RMA withdrawal left many groups, particularly smaller entities, including kuia or kaum\u0101tua witnesses, out of pocket.<\/p>\n

POTL argued it had already paid $977,362.32 for iwi participation for planning, legal and cultural expertise and no further costs should be awarded.<\/p>\n

In a joint reply, Ng\u0101ti Ranginui Fisheries and Ng\u0101ti Ranginui Iwi Trust said the cost of time spent by a trustee, kaum\u0101tua, kuia or other member should be eligible for cost recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOtherwise, all \u2018iwi and hap\u016b time\u2019 would be unrecoverable, other than those of their experts and lawyers,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

They also submitted that trustees, kaum\u0101tua or kuia were not invoicing as per a Western model, rather they were being guided by the kaupapa.<\/p>\n

The court agreed with the iwi\u2019s position.<\/p>\n

Judge Kirkpatrick said the port funding some work did not negate the unpaid cultural labour done by others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kaum\u0101tua, kuia and other iwi and hap\u016b members who actively participated in the proceedings represented their iwi and\/or hap\u016b as experts on the cultural matters before the Court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir role is more analogous to that of in\u2011house counsel or in\u2011house experts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no principled reason why, as experts on cultural matters, iwi and hap\u016b should be precluded from any consideration of costs in respect of their time preparing for and giving evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added the law recognises the specialist knowledge iwi and hap\u016b hold regarding tikanga, m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori<\/a>, and their relationship with ancestral lands and waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court has long relied on the expertise of iwi and hap\u016b when assessing the cultural impacts of proposals that come before it, which are not confined to physical impacts but also encompass adverse effects on tikanga and m\u0101tauranga and limitations on rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga.\u201d<\/p>\n

A hinge point in the court\u2019s decision focused on POTL\u2019s failure to adequately address cultural effects in its original application.<\/p>\n

The court found POTL had not clearly explained how kaitiakitanga would be upheld or how m\u0101tauranga M\u0101ori would be incorporated into its proposal.<\/p>\n

This forced iwi to prepare extensive evidence to fill in the gaps of the incomplete application.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider that an award of costs above the standard level would be appropriate to reflect and compensate for their wasted effort in presenting evidence about cultural and social effects, which were poorly treated in POTL\u2019s case, which was through no fault on their part,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

The court also found POTL\u2019s late withdrawal was an aggravating feature given the years of engagement and two interim decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe applicants participated in the direct referral process only for there to be no conclusion to it,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese efforts may now need to be repeated through the fast\u2011track process.\u201d<\/p>\n

POTL was ordered to pay a further $298,023 in tangata whenua fees.<\/p>\n

Neither party responded to NZME\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Shannon Pitman is a Whang\u0101rei-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the Te Tai Tokerau region. She is of Ng\u0101puhi\/ Ng\u0101ti P\u016bkenga descent and has worked in digital media for the past five years. She joined NZME in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is the latest in a long-running dispute over the proposed expansion of the ports of Tauranga, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[220239,74,5750,169500,8996,3989,2082,50521,111,43,139,69,1118,29268,8995,1227,61,195163],"class_list":["post-429893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-aborting","tag-after","tag-application","tag-compensate","tag-consent","tag-effort","tag-for","tag-iwi","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-port","tag-resource","tag-tauranga","tag-to","tag-wasted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}