Council's actions 'unwise' but still 'adequate' on Erebus Memorial, Ombudsman says

Monday, 20 March 2023

Artist's impression of Erebus National Memorial in Dove-Myer Robinson Park, Parnell, Auckland.

The actions of council staff advising on the National Erebus Memorial project were “adequate” if at times “unwise”, according to an investigation by the Ombudsman.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier investigated complaints laid after the council decided not to notify the resource consent application for building the memorial, meaning the public didn’t get the chance to contest it before independent commissioners.

Complainants alleged that council staff had been “biased” towards the Ministry of Culture and Heritage throughout the process.

Boshier determined that in some respects council staff did act “unreasonably”.

Work began at the national Erebus memorial after protesters were evicted in November.

* Erebus memorial: Start of construction rebuffed at contentious Auckland site

* Erebus memorial to go ahead despite Ombudsman's investigation

Hut Point Peninsula with Mt Erebus prominent and Mt Terror to the right. From Neville Peat's book Home Is An Island.

He found that the council was wrong to recommend to the Waitematā Local Board that it give landowner approval.

That was partly because Council staff “failed to share” an environmental consultant’s report with the board before it gave it’s in principle support.

“A question arose around whether the council had the final report in the first place and therefore whether it was in the position to advise the local board of it. In my view it is reasonable to assume that it did have the report or should have done so,” Boshier said.

However, the Ombudsman found that the council wasn’t wrong not to publicly notify the application because its “Heritage Policy” did not require it to do so.

Boshier did criticise a council officer for making comments urging the ministry to “counteract views opposed to approval”, labelling the comments “unwise”.

However, he found the comments were not a “material factor” and the council’s consultation of the public and the resulting report to the local board had been 'adequate”.

According to a statement from the Ombudsman’s office, Boshier concluded that no recommendations were necessary following the investigation, and his opinion was final.

The National Erebus Memorial project in Dove-Myer Robinson Park in Parnell has been mired in controversy.

Protesters attempted to block construction workers when the project first began and a group of kaumātua gathered to place a rāhui.

Progress on building the memorial stalled due to Covid-19 and the Ministry of Culture and Heritage has reportedly sought to extend its landowner approval from the Waitematā Local Board.

In an opinion article, Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown called the project “a huge concrete thing” and said it would be better off near the airport to remind people about the risk of flying.

The memorial is intended to honour the 257 people who died in the country’s worst air crash, when an Air New Zealand plane hit Mt Erebus in Antarctica during a sightseeing flight in 1979.