At some stage in 2005, senior officials of the MDC informally raised with the Minister for the Environment and senior officials the possibility of the TPL applications being “called in” by the Minister under s141B of the RMA. No record of this exchange or any associated correspondence was sighted during the course of this review. MfE officials advise that no formal written request was made to the Minister for the applications to be called in.
TPL commented that they were aware of this approach by MDC but were neutral or slightly opposed to the Government “calling in” the applications. This was because TPL viewed the scheme as a predominantly local rather than national matter – it was designed to supply power to Blenheim and the irrigation scheme was local. They also commented that from their perspective “call in” runs the risk of a local issue being ramped up into a national campaign, quoting opposition to the proposed raising of Lake Manapouri in the late 1970’s as an example.
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6 Possible Call In of the Applications
October 2009
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