ACT Deputy Leader Ken Shirley said he was pleased that the Leader of the House has today agreed to ACT proposals for urgent legislation to correct procedural nonsenses created by the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act.

“With the goodwill of all parties we can hopefully put legislation through the House next Tuesday and end the fiasco surrounding the Whitianga Waterways project.

“I have to say that the role of the Green Party in this has been most unhelpful and hypocritical. They have consistently opposed and frustrated this and other such projects. However, at the 11th hour, when confronted with electoral vulnerability, Jeanette Fitzsimons did a 180-degree turn on the issue. Had the Greens not opposed this popular project in the first place these problems might not have arisen.

“While I’m pleased we are now moving to a resolution on the Whitianga Waterways situation this won’t, unfortunately, be the end of problems caused by the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act, passed last year. ACT was the only party in Parliament to speak out against this ‘feel good’ legislation and to vote against it.

“We predicted that it would lead to bureaucratic nonsense such as this. The Whitianga Waterways affair is surely just the first of many such fiascos this legislation will create. Parliament needs urgently to re-examine the Act and start cutting through the layers of red tape.

“The bureaucratic nightmare of this legislation is amply demonstrated by the amazing fact that in the year since the Act was passed the Authority established under it has been unable to meet because of squabbling between the territorial bodies and six iwi groups,” Ken Shirley said.

ENDS

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