KiwiRail calls bylaw 'revenue gathering'

KiwiRail has slammed a proposed navigation bylaw as a money spinner and promised to challenge it in court.

"It is a poorly disguised revenue-gathering exercise," said the counsel for the Interislander ferry operator, James Winchester, on the final day of a hearing on the proposed Marlborough District Council bylaw yesterday.

"KiwiRail will have little option but to challenge the validity of the bylaw in the High Court," Mr Winchester said. "There is no logical link between the fees and the navigational risks identified."

Mr Winchester said the council needed to show what safety issues the bylaw would fix and asked why it was so hard to get information from the Marlborough District Council about the bylaw.

The company believed the council had determined that a bylaw was the answer and had worked backwards to justify it, he said.

A common theme among submitters has been the absence of recreational boat users from the proposed bylaw, and KiwiRail reiterated this question.

Chairman John Marshall QC asked how recreational users could contribute, and suggested the age-old response of registration and licensing of all vessels was the only real answer.

The Interislander master, Captain William Wood, said the main area of concern for him was small vessels and the risk they put themselves and their passengers in.

He questioned why people required a licence to drive cars and own dogs, but not to skipper a recreational boat.

Licensing introduced the opportunity for education and training, which could improve safety, he said. "Our lives and careers can be ruined by the stupidity of a small boat owner."

Interislander general manager Thomas Davis said the Interislander spent a lot of money on safety, and the company was being unfairly targeted with costs under the proposed bylaw.

The company already paid more than $4 million in fees to Port Marlborough and that should include safety systems, he said.

Representing the Canterbury-Marlborough Rock Lobster Association, Robyn Garrett said the Marlborough District Council had not provided enough information about what it would use the new fees for. She said the Marico Report 2005 was out of date and said she would have liked to see a council report on which recommendations in the Marico report it wanted to carry out. There had been little transparency and serious gaps in the information available to the public, she said.

Mrs Garret said she was concerned about buoys being classified as an obstruction, but was interrupted by the committee to be told that buoys would no longer be considered an obstruction.

New Zealand Shipping Federation executive director Sam Buckle said the bylaw had wider implications than the Marlborough Sounds. "This bylaw could become a highly unwelcome precedent."

He said there was a difference between significant risk and what is known in the industry as ALARP (as low as reasonably practical).

He had a copy of the Marico 2009 review of the Marico 2005 report, which he said now reported there were no significant risks and that the council was managing its maritime safety risks as required under the Port and Harbour Safety Code, which made the proposed bylaw unnecessary, he said.

In his final summing up, hearing committee chairman John Marshall, QC, said the committee reserved its decision and would report to the Marlborough District Council.

- The Marlborough Express