I have always thought that Ron Mark was as sound as a pound – the Defence Minister has common sense and he’s not an entitled git. A rarity, not just in politics but also in the modern age – more on entitled gits coming up later in the show!
And using his ministerial power to overturn an environment court ruling he’s shown yet again that he’s a man for the times.
We talked about this issue on the show before. Neil Construction Limited took a case against Auckland Council challenging the special noise regulations that Whenuapai Air Base has enjoyed for quite some time.
Neil Construction plans to build 300 homes next to the base on land they bought in 2013 and they believed that the noise from engine testing, which can take place in the middle of the night as the air force gears up for search and rescue or special mission ops is bothersome, and that the air force should mitigate the noise by moving engine testing away from the air base’s periphery, closer to the centre of the base – which apparently, according to Ron Mark would cost millions of taxpayer dollars to do.
So, off they went to the environment court and a couple of weeks ago the environment court ruled in Neil Construction’s favour, declaring Whenuapai must comply with noise restrictions when it does late night testing of its aircraft.
The Defence Minister’s response was immediate. He used special powers under the Resource Management Act to exempt Whenuapai from noise rules because he said the ruling from the Environment Court was a threat to national security.
“This is not something I wanted to do, this is a last resort, it is like… it is the nuclear option, I would have hoped that reason and logic and rational debate would have won the day for the Defence Force, but I am locked where I am and ah, I have no choice. So, there it is. We don’t predict, we can’t predict when cyclones and natural disasters occur or are going to occur, we can’t predict when a yachtie or a family who are out sailing get into trouble or when fishermen are reported overdue. It doesn’t matter whether they are up in the Kermadecs or in the Kiribas area or wherever, we have to deploy, and if that means starting up engines, running them up at 2am in the morning to test to see if they are all functioning as they should, you’ve got sufficient power, that no props or blades are out of balance, that’s what we have to do. We have no choice in that matter so as far as I’m concerned you know, that’s just an unacceptable option and so I pulled Section 42.”
Yay for Ron Mark! That was Ron talking to Heather du Plessis-Allen on the drive show last night. God bless him though. He hoped that reason, logic and rational debate would hold sway in the Environment Court. It’s like hoping fur unicorns to ride to a land of milk and honey, you know? Yes, you would hope that some logic and rational debate would hold forth, but sadly in this day and age it doesn’t appear to.
Would that there were more Ron Marks who can see sense and will use their powers for good.
Whenuapai as an air base has been in existence since 1937. You know when you move there, or you decide to build there, that this is a place where aircraft land and take off and given that it’s a military base, that can happen at all hours of the day and night. To be fair, most of the residents of Whenuapai seem decent sorts. In the wake of the Environment Court ruling a local, Bruce Williams, launched a petition to overturn the decision, saying the community is proud to be home to the base and didn’t want to see the area ruined with ‘Johnny come latelys’ trying to change the rules – I put in the bit about the ‘Johnny come latelys’ but that’s what he meant.
The petition attracted more than 15,000 signatures in the space of 72 hours so good on the locals. Good people.
Hopefully, this will be the end of the matter. The minister has used his powers for good, the locals have spoken. Neil Construction needs to take heed of the sentiment of the community in which they wish to belong, and accept that when you move to an area, you are the one who has to adapt or change – not the ones that have been there longer than you have.