A company taken to court for destroying rare plants sells the farm and makes millions. David Williams reports
What began with horror ended with a huge payday.
In 2018, conservation lobby group Forest & Bird announced it was going to court to seek protection of rare and threatened shrubby tororaro, after the new owner of a private farm near Christchurch killed or damaged almost a third of the plant’s national population.
“We're horrified to find ourselves in this situation and are working as fast as we can to reach a collaborative, long-term solution,” said Brent Thomas, whose company Wongan Hills bought the 967-hectare Bayley farm the previous year.
A solution was found but it wasn’t quick.
Like the farm itself, which stretches 10km down a long finger of land separating the Pacific Ocean and shallow Te Waihora/Lake Ellesmere, the road was long and beset by metaphorical cattle stops.
Initially, Forest & Bird’s Environment Court case seemed to be undermined by the city council, and the Department of Conservation made a side agreement with Thomas, much to the chagrin of DoC staff, and then didn’t bother to submit on a Wongan Hills irrigation consent.
The strangely secretive Environment Court process was adjourned to allow sale negotiations to continue – initially with DoC, but later in a joint venture between the Crown and two local rūnanga, Te Taumutu and Wairewa.
In June of this year, the Government announced it had bought the land and was pursuing a joint venture with rūnanga to develop an aerospace facility. Now, Newsroom can reveal further details about the deal, including what appears to be a huge gain by Wongan Hills.
Property records reveal Wongan Hills paid $4 million to buy the Kaitōrete farm in November 2017. The Crown bought it for $16 million in July of last year, meaning a $12 million uplift for the farm company in less than three years.
While the farm development has no doubt been costly, it’s fair to assume Wongan Hills made a healthy profit.
A Cabinet paper, released to Newsroom under the Official Information Act, shows the Government was spooked by the potential sale to a third party. That may have contributed to its high offer.
The opportunity to buy the land was described as “immediate and time-bound”. Key risks listed in the paper – presented in the names of Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Megan Woods, the Minister of Research, Science and Innovation – included the loss of an “optimal” launch site, and “an increased possibility of continued ecological degradation and lack of protection for sites of deep cultural importance”.
The twin aims of Project Tāwhaki, as it is known, is economic development paired with environmental protection.
Studies commissioned by the Business Ministry (MBIE) in 2016 and 2020 confirmed Kaitōrete as the best space launch site in the country. (Interestingly, talks between MBIE and rūnanga about a possible partnership started in early 2017, pre-dating the Thomas purchase.)
It was deemed suitable for multiple launch sites using a range of “vehicle classes”, and was thought to be attractive to domestic and international customers given its proximity to Christchurch, with an international airport and port, and a highly skilled local workforce. MBIE told ministers there was “strong interest” from Japan and the United States in launch and R&D facilities in New Zealand.
On the environment, Kaitōrete Spit is a conservation treasure trove, home to at least 30 species of threatened or rare plants, birds and invertebrates. It’s also of high cultural significance – having the country’s highest concentration of Māori archaeological and sacred sites (wāhi taonga/wāhi tapu).
Last year, the Environment Court said there had been a second spraying incident involving the destruction of rare shrubby tororaro, known as Muehlenbeckia astonii, this time in April 2020. This appears to be confirmed by the Cabinet paper, which said: “In 2018 and 2020, the activities on the Land by the current landowner have caused destruction and damage to the indigenous flora and fauna.”
Newsroom emailed Thomas to ask if he accepted that was the case but he didn’t respond. As part of the transition to aerospace, Thomas’ company Willesden Farms has taken a multi-year lease.
With the land purchase completed, the Environment Court proceedings are over. The Christchurch City Council confirms it hasn’t taken any action against Wongan Hills for vegetation clearance.
Jane Davis, the council’s infrastructure, planning and regulatory services general manager, says of the 2018 incident its investigation was closed after the mediated resolution of Environment Court proceedings.
Greenpeace Aotearoa’s senior agricultural campaigner Christine Rose says: “It’s pretty concerning because what signal does that send to other people who are repeat transgressors?”
Newsroom put Greenpeace’s concerns to Thomas but he didn’t respond.
Nicky Snoyink, regional conservation manager for lobby group Forest & Bird, is pragmatic. “In our view, what has happened is the best possible outcome for Kaitōrete – it’s now in the rūnanga’s hands.”
However, she says the city council – which is pursuing a change to its district plan to “better protect and maintain indigenous vegetation” – has learnt a hard lesson.
“For any future development, the effects on the environment need to be heavily scrutinised, really watched, so we don’t lose any more. We’re relying on real good process in the future for anything that does happen there.”
The Department of Conservation has already identified areas on the property of ecological significance and will be part of a conservation management working group for the joint venture. Given the former farmland adjoins a scientific reserve, DoC appears to be watching Project Tāwhaki closely.
In an internal email from May, released to Newsroom under the Official Information Act, eastern South Island operations director Nicola Toki writes: “DoC will continue its regulatory and advocacy roles associated with any proposed activities, as well as ensuring that public access continues to public conservation land.”
Woods, the Research and Science Minister, is matter-of-fact about the lack of enforcement. “Do we want to see that land continuing to be farmed in a way that those transgressions can take place into the future? ... This is about charting out a different future and a different use for that land.”
She notes any proposal will need to jump through regulatory hoops, including assessments of environmental effects. “Consenting is critical. If you can’t get a consent to do it, you can’t do it.”
David Perenara-O’Connell (Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Mamoe and Waitaha), of Te Taumutu Rūnanga, is a spokesperson for Project Tāwhaki, and a rūnanga representative on the joint venture committee.
“The big concern was what we were seeing the intensification of a dryland ecosystem that’s really important from a rūnanga perspective. To be able to get this outcome, and hopefully rehabilitate the land and move things back to a landscape in an environment that we recognise, is front and centre for us.”
Another important aspect of the Kaitōrete purchase, as revealed in the Cabinet paper, is furthering Crown-Māori relations. The joint venture was lauded as a novel approach as it was done at hapū (subtribe) level, rather than with iwi Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu. The structure was endorsed by the Office for Māori Crown Relations, Te Arawhiti.
The relationship with rūnanga, and the economic and environmental opportunites, were so compelling, the Government scrapped a proposed $2 million co-investment by rūnanga – $1 million each from Te Taumutu and Wairewa; money that was accessible to rūnanga, according to the paper. The Crown ended up providing a non-refundable grant to Kaitōrete Ltd, owned jointly by rūnanga companies.
(The land title is held by Kaitōrete Land Holding Ltd, jointly owned by Kaitōrete Ltd and the Crown, through the Minister of Research, Science and Innovation.)
Minister Woods says of the grant: “It basically helps the rūnanga participate in the commercial partnership – going through a joint venture is not an insignificant legal process.”
She adds: “In order for Canterbury and for New Zealand to achieve [Project Tāwhaki] it’s got to be done in partnership with mana whenua.”
Perenara-O’Connell, of Te Taumutu, says rūnanga worked on the project for more than four years and were contributing 1000 hectares of their land to the project. A representative of Te Taumutu Charitable Trust is a director of land-owning company Kaitōrete Ltd.
“That [land] is essentially part of the broader relationship.”
But it goes deeper than that. An analysis paper accompanying the Cabinet paper points to a 2019 decision of the Māori Crown Relations Cabinet Committee which says: “This Government has agreed to support the realisation of the true promise of the Treaty by 2040.”
Investing in innovative Māori-Crown partnerships will help achieve this aim, and Te Arawhiti said Project Tāwhaki could provide an “exemplary example”.
Asked if more such joint ventures will emerge to honour the Treaty, Minister Woods responds: “Where appropriate. This was a case where it was absolutely appropriate. The project couldn’t have worked from one of the partners without the other – it truly is a partnership.”
“We’ve looked at opportunities to acquire Kaitōrete land for generations so to lose that again, I don’t think it would ever be on the table.” – David Perenara-O’Connell
Perenara-O’Connell says: “If this can be a basis that we look at how we do things differently into the future then that’s great.”
For Te Taumutu and Wairewa, the project re-establishes their connection with ancestral land, and ensures rūnanga are central decision-makers. It’s an opportunity to reverse the urban drift from traditional areas experienced after World War Two, as whānau left their papa kāinga (home villages), for jobs and other opportunities.
“Rebuilding the strength of those communities through training, employment, and housing, and all of those sorts of things, are certainly goals that we have for the two rūnanaga,” Perenara-O’Connell says.
The professed aim of the joint-venture is to find or establish a suitable entity to build and operate a space launch and R&D facility, to develop environmental restoration plans, and attract business investors.
Long-term environmental plans may be some way off but farming has already been restricted and “the tenant” – Thomas company Willesden Farms – has fenced key areas since the property changed hands on June 30. Four thousand plants have already been planted, with 8000 more to go in over the next two years.
“Project Tāwhaki is attracting strong demand from domestic and international aerospace companies,” Perenara-O’Connell says. The immediate focus is on the domestic aerospace sector, including working with local company Kea Aerospace, which is building what it calls “the largest unmanned aircraft ever built in the Southern Hemisphere”.
Kea Aerospace’s chief executive Mark Rocket says it started flight testing at Kaitōrete on September 20.
Estimated project costs for the first two years of Crown involvement are $830,000. The rūnanga appointments to the joint venture committee are Perenara-O’Connell for Te Taumutu and Henrietta Carroll for Wairewa. Crown appointments are being finalised.
“We’re absolutely in this for the long haul,” Perenara-O’Connell says. “In fact, it would have to be something incredibly significant that would mean we would want to exit.
“We’ve looked at opportunities to acquire Kaitōrete land for generations so to lose that again, I don’t think it would ever be on the table. This is a long-term journey for us and we would hope that it’s a long term journey for the Crown.”
