Submission to the Maori Affairs Committee on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill

The regulatory provisions in this Bill relating to infrastructure are very important, because of the dependence of communities on infrastructure, its long life and its value. In particular, roads are not simply carriageways but include a range of associated structures, some of which, by their nature, extend into marine and coastal areas.

The protection of existing infrastructure, new infrastructure, and associated operations, by being designated “accommodated activities”, is supported. However IPENZ, INGENIUM and Water New Zealand (“we”) are concerned with the inconsistent references to infrastructure, and the attempts in the Bill to define existing and new infrastructure that is subject to the “accommodation” provisions.

Often infrastructure is not nationally or regionally significant, and the term “essential work” and „practicable alternatives” are poorly defined.

Regarding the provisions for minerals, it is not clear to us why some minerals in a customary marine title area remain in the ownership of the Crown, but other minerals that are important to the national economy, such as ironsands, would be in the ownership of a customary marine title group.