TRANSCRIPT of PROCEEDINGS BOARD of INQUIRY Basin Bridge
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TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS BOARD OF INQUIRY Basin Bridge Proposal HEARING at BASIN RESERVE, MT COOK, WELLINGTON on 28 May 2014 BOARD OF INQUIRY: Retired Environment and District Court Judge Gordon Whiting (Chairperson) James Baines (Board Member) David Collins (Board Member) David McMahon (Board Member) Page 7931 APPEARANCES <DUNCAN BRUTTON KENDERDINE, on former oath [2.20 pm] ..... 8000 <EXAMINATION BY MS WEDDE [2.22 pm] ............................... 8001 5 <RON McFADYEN, sworn [2.21 pm] ....................................................... 8000 <EXAMINATION BY MS WEDDE [2.39 pm] ............................... 8008 <CROSS EXAMINATION BY MS MCCARTHY [3.04 pm] ......... 8018 <RE-EXAMINATION BY MS WEDDE [3.46 pm] ........................ 8037 10 Basin Reserve, Wellington 28.05.14 Page 7932 [9.35 am] CHAIRPERSON: Yes, good morning everybody. I can’t read this, too small. 5 MR……….: Ms Mellish. CHAIRPERSON: Yes, tēnā koe, Ms Mellish. MS MELLISH: Kia ora. 10 CHAIRPERSON: You are giving the representation for Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust and the Taranaki whānau? MS MELLISH: Kia ora, yes, I am. 15 CHAIRPERSON: Yes. So if you could just give your full name and who you represent and then read your representation. MS MELLISH: Thank you, Judge. 20 My name is Rebecca Elizabeth Mellish and I am of Te Ātiawa and I represent Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust, Wellington Tenths Trust and Palmerston North Māori Reserve Trust. 25 And in my submission I outline clearly the functions of those three trusts in relation to the iwi and Wellington and Upper and Lower Hutts. CHAIRPERSON: Thank you. 30 MS MELLISH: So are you ready for me to – thank you, Judge. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. MĀORI CONTENT 35 CHAIRPERSON: Kia ora. MS MELLISH: Kia ora. I stand – actually sit – here today to support the applicant as the natural resources advisor to Wellington Tenths Trust, 40 Palmerston North Māori Reserve Trust and Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust. All three trusts are iwi authorities mandated and recognised by the Crown and operate under formal legislative acts. The first two trusts 45 under the Te Ture Whenua Act 1993 and the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Act 2009. Membership of all three trusts are the Basin Reserve, Wellington 28.05.14 Page 7933 descendants of the peoples who lived around the Te Whanganui ā Tara at the time of settlement in the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi on April 29th in 1840. And I might note that that was signed in Wellington Harbour on board the ship The Aerial (ph 2.54). 5 Those peoples were whānau, hapu and iwi of Te Ātiawa Taranaki Tuturu, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngāti Tama. The whakapapa is reflected in today’s membership of the three organisations. As advisor to the trusts I bring the lifetime experience and history of the ahi ka, of Te Ātiawa 10 Taranaki, Whanganui and Wellington City and Lower and Upper Hutt cities. I was the Chair of the team that negotiated the cultural redress for the Taranaki whanui claims. An instrument of the claims’ process is the 15 ability to undertake reintroduction of place names through the geographic board. The most prominent of which is the Ahumairangi, the traditional name for the maunga, mountain, for over 100 years called Tinakori Hill. The reintroduction of names has created opportunities for the pre-European history to be told. 20 With the creation of our national park, Pukeahu, we are showing Aotearoa New Zealand the importance these original names are. For clarification, Pukeahu, of course, is the mountain right next door to the Basin Reserve where the National War Memorial Park is being 25 established. Seeking therefore under this application to build a bridge around the current Basin Reserve provides an important opportunity to continue that revitalisation. It is necessary for us as mana whenua to consider in 30 these applications the effect on our cultural landscape. In this area our landscape has disappeared with the establishment of the famous cricket ground known as the Basin Reserve. The earlier use by iwi is now not well known, but the history is waiting to be unearthed. 35 [9.40 am] The Basin is surrounded by sites well used by many of the iwi who have resided in and around the harbour. Many names given by those former inhabitants pepper the city and this will lead to the complex and 40 interesting story of Wellington. Bearing all that in mind I stand here before you, commissioners, to seek a further condition on the consent to enable us, as mana whenua, to have the right to name this proposed bridge “Hauwai”. And then I just 45 give you references from the book of Leslie Adkin’s and also the key Basin Reserve, Wellington 28.05.14 Page 7934 cultural landscape sections out of the RMA just as a reference. And that is all my submission to you, Commissioners, today. CHAIRPERSON: Could you read out the reference in italics, just for the 5 record? MS MELLISH: Certainly. And this comes from the book that Leslie Adkin’s produced “The Great Harbour of Tara” and it is his reference to hauwai. Hauwai cultivation area, the slopes on the east side of what is 10 now the Basin Reserve from the position of the main entrance gates to Wellington College to the edge of the former Basin Reserve swamp. This was the cultivation area of the Ngati Hinewai Hapu of Ngai Tara who occupied Te Akatarawa Pa on Mount Alfred on the Mount Victoria ridge known to us as Te Rangahiwi. And then further on to 15 that I say “I realise this is an unusual condition to seek, but this unique request will assist in addressing the matters referred to in the RMA, particularly the sections outlined below”. CHAIRPERSON: Yes, kia ora, Ms Mellish. 20 MS MELLISH: Kia ora. CHAIRPERSON: Ms Mellish, has the Trust discussed the matter with NZTA? 25 MS MELLISH: We certainly have and on many occasions and we are very aware that we provided cultural impact report to assist the NZTA, so we are very confident that NZTA would support the naming of the bridge that allows that story to be told and if we put Hauwai beside the 30 fact that there was a swamp, the Waitangi Stream ran through, which actually came out of Wellington Hospital, it is quite a complex but lovely story there, two springs in the grounds of Wellington Hospital. Which is why the hospital is called Nga Puna Waiora and they were healing springs. So it is quite interesting and a little surprising that a 35 hospital now exists on that site. And ran through the swamp at the Basin Reserve and called the Waitangi Stream that ended in a lagoon about where Waitangi Park now is, next to Te Papa. MS WARD: Your Honour - - - 40 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you for that. MS WARD: Your Honour, if it assists the Board in any way and I can advise the Board that my client, NZTA, does support that condition. 45 CHAIRPERSON: Yes, thank you for that. Yes. Basin Reserve, Wellington 28.05.14 Page 7935 MS MELLISH: Thank you. CHAIRPERSON: Any questions? Well, that seems to be - - - 5 MR COLLINS: Kia ora. Your submission that was filed on this project mentioned other matters as well as the naming issue. Did you want to raise those any further, to discuss them? 10 MS MELLISH: I am really happy to discuss any of those. One of things of course that we did talk about in the submission was the easing, it is the placement of Wellington Hospital and we see the bridge as quite vital to the work that we do with the hospital. It is a tertiary hospital and it really does service our peoples through the Hutt Valley and through 15 Wellington and Wairarapa and the Kapiti Coast. We have other marae along the Kapiti Coast at Waikanae. And so having access to that hospital for our people is actually extremely important and this development we see as ensuring that reaching there and assisting families to access that is really important. You know, we are still 20 suffering badly from poor health statistics. I think further to that, knowing that we in joint ownership of Pukeahu with Massey University, which is of course adjacent to and we have been working very extensively with the Ministry of Culture and 25 Heritage on that development. [9.50 am] All of this – we do not see the bridge on its own, we see it in that much 30 bigger context and the opportunity that that could provide for us as people. MR COLLINS: So the issue with the hospital is that you are experiencing difficulties getting to the hospital? - - - 35 MS MELLISH: It - - - MR COLLINS: - - - Getting to and fro, or getting to, I suppose, in particular? 40 MS MELLISH: Exactly. And certainly in talking to our people there is always the difficulty and particularly for those that are living rurally and not knowing Wellington well or anything that can assist that good flow of traffic is always going to be helpful for our people. 45 MR COLLINS: Okay. Now the bridge is a particular solution that is suggested by the Agency, but others have suggested other ways of Basin Reserve, Wellington 28.05.14 Page 7936 achieving the same outcome of grade separation or just better traffic flow. Does iwi have a view that this is the only solution, or is your concern simply to make sure you can get to the hospital in time? 5 MS MELLISH: Yes, we have not wanted to enter into that debate too far of “A is better than B”.