The Dead Hand of the RMA #2

Case #2 involved a project in shitty, poor farming country. The local farmers were ecstatic when we offered them options over their farms. Two neighbours, who were lifestylers, objected to the development - fair enough. Another party were a group of unemployed maori who were squatting about 10km up the road. We had consulted heavily with the local tribe and got their approval but this mob of squatters refused to accept the tribe's decision. Transit NZ promised to protest unless we paid for major roadworks for us to turn on/off a State Highway to our site. That blackmail cost a few million. Regional Council hearing - yes. Appeals to Environment Court.

Members of the squatter gang turn up at 1st day with kaumatua-like walking sticks in hand and demand to be heard despite not having been involved in 1st hearing. The Chair of the Court calls security and then rules they can be involved as they have special rights due to their 'love' of the land concerned! Anyone else has to have been involved in the Regional Council case to then be allowed to appeal to the Environment Court. Us skinny white boys are relieved as we could see a brawl ensuing if the decision had been otherwise and we only had briefcases to defend ourselves.

Away we go. One of the key witnesses (maori) is an expert in maori history and lore. There are a lot of local kaumatua present to hear this part of the hearing. He presents the evidence about the site. The person speaking for the maori squatters then claims the site is 'waihi tapu' (sacred). Our witness demolishes this completely. The speaker claims he is wrong because she was told by an elderly woman. We ask, "Well where is she?" "Oh she is too ill to travel." "OK," says the judge, "We will take a deposition from her." "Oh she doesn't believe in that sort of thing." The speaker than says to our witness, "Who the hell are you to tell us about our history?" Oh boy was that the wrong thing to do. He promptly reels off his whakapapa. He is related to everyone of importance in maoridom and the local tribe. The local kaumatua are going "Kia ora, kia ora" as he speaks. They recognise his right to speak on the matter and leave satisfied with his testimony. What annoys us is that if we had not had someone of his knowledge and mana, a blatant lie could have stopped our case. No evidence was ever presented to prove 'wahi tapu'.

Months later the Court rules in our favour and later also rules in our favour re costs. One neighbour says "OK you won and here is my cheque for my share of the costs." The other neighbour decides to appeal as do the squatters. We win appeal plus costs. Neighbour falls silent and as she has no financial assets, she ducks for cover. The squatters then want a further appeal. Despite being out of time to file they are allowed to continue. The points of law are laughable and are thrown out at the appeal hearing. They try again to appeal. Finally the courts say enough. Of course we never see a penny in costs.

All up, the court hearings, legal fees, expert witnesses costs etc - $5 million plus a few more million for Transit NZ.

This time we built the project. The impact of the RMA process we had undergone was threefold-

1. We had a virtual monopoly in the region as no one else could afford to build a competing facility; and
2. Our charges were higher than necessary to recover the costs of the consent process; and
3. Because of the costs of getting consents to build a competing facility and because of our level of charges, it encouraged competitors to open illegal facilities without any of the environmental safeguards we had to build in.

What a time wasting joke.