JAMES CAMERON
Protect the Kermadecs
Creating one of the world’s largest ocean sanctuaries around the Kermadec Islands is the “right thing to do”, Hollywood director James Cameron says.
Legislation to establish the sanctuary has been put on ice after a fierce backlash over a lack of consultation on the removal of Maori fishing rights in the area.
Cameron, director of films including Titanic and Avatar, has previously lobbied for the Kermadec Sanctuary with environmental groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, Forest & Bird and the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Speaking to the Herald yesterday after watching his friend and former next-door neighbour Dame Patsy Reddy sworn in as Governor-General at Parliament, he said he hoped the sanctuary would progress.
“[It’s] something that’s the right thing to do . . . it is important for New Zealand to own its legacy, and [be] clean, green, pure — which is the way that the world sees this place.
“I think it’s good for the tourism industry,” said Cameron, a keen environmentalist who recently featured in Tourism NZ’s 100% Pure New Zealand campaign.
Cameron said that five or six years ago he met Prime Minister John Key and at the request of the Pew Charitable Trusts gave him a briefing paper on the possibility of a marine protected area around the Kermadec Islands, northeast of New Zealand.
“We had a bit of a discussion about it . . . I was a big proponent of it. But I haven’t been involved in it since, so I’m not fully briefed.”
Asked about the controversy over Maori rights, Cameron said he couldn’t comment as he was not upto-date on the situation.
“I’m sure it is a complex issue. But you asked me if I am in favour of it? Yes. I’m in favour of a lot of marine protected areas because I think we’ve got to hold on to what we are losing, and we are losing it fast,” he said.
Key announced the Kermadec sanctuary at the United Nations last September.
The project will cover an area around the Kermadec Islands that is twice the size of New Zealand’s land mass and 50 times the size of the country’s largest national park.
Two fisheries settlements in 1989 and 1992 granted Maori control over one-third of New Zealand’s commercial fisheries.
However, the Government has reasoned that no compensation need be paid because there is little viable commercial fishing in the area, and it has a right to provide for no-take marine reserves.
Talks between Te Ohu Kaimoana (the Maori Fisheries Commission) and the Government collapsed this month and Te Ohu said it intended to progress with legal action to try to stop the removal of Maori fishing rights by the legislation setting up the sanctuary.
There have been talks between the Maori Party and the Government to try to salvage a solution to the impasse.
Key has said he will put the sanctuary on hold indefinitely if he cannot get agreement from the Maori Party.
On Monday, he said he wasn’t aware of further talks this week: “I don’t think there is urgency. We want to resolve it . . . but in the end we need to find a way through . . . I don’t think putting artificial pressure on the process will help.”
In June, Labour’s fisheries spokesman, Rino Tirikatene, singled out the Pew Charitable Trusts for criticism during a select committee hearing, saying many Maori considered it disgraceful that a “foreignfunded NGO” could dictate and lobby to override Maori rights.
Environment Minister Nick Smith has said he has had conversations about the Kermadecs with American Secretary of State John Kerry and also officials from Australia, Britain and Chile, but the decision to create the sanctuary was not due to international pressure.
Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron has praised the new GovernorGeneral — his former neighbour — as an “astonishingly talented and competent woman”.
Cameron attended the swearingin ceremony for Dame Patsy Reddy at Parliament yesterday with fellow Hollywood heavyweight Sir Peter Jackson and other guests.
Speaking to the Herald as he left a reception in Parliament’s banquet hall with his wife Suzy, Cameron said he was thrilled with his friend’s appointment as New Zealand’s 21st Governor-General.
The couple became friends with Dame Patsy and her husband, Sir David Gascoigne, after owning property next to each other in the South Wairarapa.
“We got to be quite chummy out there. She and [Sir David] would come over for dinner and . . . we would pop down there and Suzy and Patsy got to be quite good mates.”
Cameron said he knew Dame Patsy had big plans for the position.
“She is absolutely an astonishingly talented and competent woman. And she has got a big vision of what she can do as GovernorGeneral.
“I know she will do a good job. She has done a good job with everything she has ever done, and she has done an awful lot of things.”
A powhiri and haka greeted Dame Patsy and Sir David on Parliament’s forecourt, before the Queen’s new representative took the royal salute and inspected a guard of Navy, Army and Air Force personnel.
A 21-gun artillery salute from Point Jerningham across town in Roseneath sounded over Wellington, and the New Zealand Opera Chorus standing on Parliament’s steps sang Hine e Hine.
Cameron, a Canadian, has been responsible for films — Avatar, Aliens and The Terminator — that have helped shape modern cinema. So what did he make of the pomp of yesterday ’s ceremony?
“I think it is such an almost surreal juxtaposition of the very English, very royal and precise, with the Maori — kind of tribal and very emotional.
“And I love that juxtaposition . . . that kind of defines the full spectrum of this country and it’s kind of national soul.”
Before becoming neighbours (Dame Patsy has since moved to
HVisit nzherald.co.nz for a video interview with Dame Patsy Reddy
Greytown), Cameron said he knew the new Governor-General through the film business — Dame Patsy has had a strong involvement in the arts and was chair of the Film Commission.
“As head of the Film Commission she was pretty directly responsible for the incentives that helped us bring the Avatar sequels here,” he said.
“The crazy thing is she has been pivotal to my business interests here in New Zealand. And just by a pure lightning stroke happened to be our next-door neighbour. . . . I mean literally a couple hundred metres from us, she was the closest house.”
Earlier yesterday Prime Minister John Key told those assembled that Dame Patsy’s appointment sent a strong message about New Zealand valuing women in leadership roles.
Dame Patsy said she wanted to emulate the two other women to have held the position — former Auckland Mayor Dame Catherine Tizard (Governor General from 1990-1996) and former Judge Dame Silvia Cartwright (2001 to 2006).
“Dame Cath and Dame Sylvia challenged norms and expectations by stepping into public leadership roles at a time when women were not easily accepted as leaders.
“Their success helped shape a world where young women and men can forge a path in whatever career they choose,” she said.
Four themes would guide her own time as Governor-General, Dame Patsy said — creativity, innovation, leadership and diversity.
“I take on this opportunity with some trepidation. But also with enthusiasm and commitment.”
Dame Patsy replaced Sir Jerry Mateparae, who was given a state farewell last month as his five-year term ended on August 31.
She made her name in corporate governance, serving on private and public sector company boards over the past 20 years.
Most recently she worked on the review of the intelligence agencies with former Deputy Prime Minister Sir Michael Cullen.
Her husband, Sir David, is a former lawyer and former Judicial Conduct Commissioner. He is a former chairman of law firm Watts and Patterson, which became part of Rudd Watts and Stone and then Minter Ellison Rudd Watts. Dame Patsy worked at Rudd Watts too.
The couple will have two official residences, one in Wellington and one in Auckland.
As a constitutional monarchy, New Zealand’s head of state is the Queen and the Governor-General is her representative in New Zealand.
The Governor-General acts on the advice of ministers of the Crown and does not initiate actions or get involved in political debate.
He or she appoints a Prime Minister after an election, based on public knowledge of which leader can command a House majority.
The role also involves a lot of work with charities and communities, as well as entertaining visiting dignitaries — occasionally members of the royal family.
It has also involved more diplomacy in representing NZ at events overseas.