Cunliffe: Owners to pay full Rena bill
Rena wreckage was still highly visible on Astrolabe Reef Labour leader David Cunliffe says he would force the owners of the Rena to pay the full amount of the cleanup of the Astrolabe Reef, where remains of the container ship still lie.
The Government and the Rena’s owners, the Daina Shipping Co, last year reached a financial settlement over the grounding off the coast of Tauranga in October 2011.
About 350 tonnes of oil escaped, some washing up along the Bay of Plenty coastline.
Daina will pay $27.6 million to settle the claims of the Crown and public bodies including Maritime NZ, the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, the Environmental Protection Agency, the NZ Transport Agency and the minister of local government as the territorial authority for Motiti Island.
That could leave a shortfall of about $20m on the cleanup costs, which were so far about $47m.
If Daina decided to apply for and was granted a resource consent to leave part of the wreck in place as a diving attraction, the company would make an additional payment of $10.4m to the Crown. Mr Cunliffe said yesterday he would force the company to pay the full amount to have the wreck removed completely.
‘‘A Labour government will clean the reef up,’’ Mr Cunliffe said.
‘‘We will make the Rena’s owner pay through any means possible.’’
An application to leave the wreck where it was would be an ‘‘insult to local iwi, Bay of Plenty leaders and Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby who all want this mess gone’’, he said. ‘‘Daina Shipping must be made to clean up the wreckage and pay for the cost of doing so.’’
Mr Cunliffe did not say just how he would force the company to pay, merely that ‘‘Labour will make that ideal world a reality’’.