26 July

Māori-led group applies for an interim injunction to stop Tūpuna Maunga Authority from continuing to fell trees at Ōtāhuhu Mt Richmond

A Māori-led Māngere-Ōtāhuhu community group has this afternoon applied for an interim injunction to stop Tūpuna Maunga Authority from continuing to fell dozens of large trees at Ōtāhuhu Mt Richmond. The Authority is listed as first respondent, and Auckland Council is second respondent.

The interim injunction application is due to be heard on 27 July. The Authority has indicated it will continue with the felling regardless, so further protect action is planned at the maunga tomorrow morning.

This follows a tense stand-off this morning where the Respect Maunga Richmond Ōtāhuhu tree protection group and its supporters intervened and brought felling operations to a halt. Police were called and negotiated for the felling to be stopped for the day, but it is due to resume again in the morning even though a ruling has yet to be made on the interim injunction application.

The group’s leader Local resident Shirley Waru (Te Rarawa o Ngāpui / Te Uri o Tai) this afternoon applied for an interim injunction on the grounds that:

· A judicial review application to save the maunga’s trees will be rendered useless if many of the trees had already been felled

· There are strong grounds for challenging the validity of the resource consent that the Authority is relying upon when felling the trees

· There is a strong public interest in the legality of the respondents’ actions being properly tested before the felling is carried out

Last year, the Court of Appeal unanimously found the Authority had acted unlawfully by failing to comply with its consultation obligations under the Reserves Act in relation to its plans to fell 345 trees at Ōwairaka Mt Albert. The decision also concluded Auckland Council acted unlawfully by not publicly notifying the tree felling resource consent under the Resource Management Act.

Official information requests revealed Tūpuna Maunga Authority and Auckland Council’s defence of that legal action and costs awarded against them ended up costing Auckland ratepayers more than $1 million.

Shirley Waru says the current works to fell around 60 trees are the first step in the Authority’s plans to get rid of hundreds more exotic trees on the Ōtāhuhu Mt Richmond maunga.

She says the Authority’s actions are not only culturally bankrupt, but hugely disrespectful towards the local community that comprises many Māori and Pasifika peoples. Its recent public consultations have also ignored the overwhelming public feedback against the tree felling, revealing the Authority’s cynical approach to the consultation process.

“This area has Auckland’s lowest tree cover as it is and very few parks and green spaces. We need more trees around here, not the few we have being chopped down for no better reason than they are non-native.”

A 2018 Auckland Council survey showed the Mangere-Ōtāhuhu area was down to only 8% tree canopy cover – and that was before the Authority felled around 100 olive trees at Mt Richmond several years ago and chopped down 153 exotic trees on Māngere maunga. The survey was also done before the intensive housing developments that have since sprung up in the neighbourhood.

Ms Waru says yet again Māori and Pasifika peoples are missing out and it is ironic that this time the damage is being done by a co-governance organisation.

Furthermore, the trees are being felled despite native birds having been observed building nests in some of them lately.

In recent years the Authority has planted thousands of native plants at the maunga but they are entirely low-growing species such as flaxes and grasses, rather than tall tree species. These plantings can never come close to replacing the environmental value of the large exotics that are being felled.

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