PM not told of key site assessment

New documents obtained under the Official Information Act reveal Ministry of Culture and Heritage staff did not inform their minister of several key papers when briefing her that Parnell’s Dove-Myer Robinson park was the recommended location for the Erebus memorial.

The Save Robbies Park residents’ group has obtained all the documents used to brief Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — who is also the Minister of Culture and Heritage — before she endorsed the design and location of the national memorial.

In particular, the ministry confirmed staff did not directly inform Ardern of a report by environmental planning and design consultants Boffa Miskell, from August 2018, which assessed Dove-Myer Robinson Park as a poor location for the memorial.

Boffa Miskell reported the park was noisy, would struggle to “develop a new memorial identity” and had no connection with the illfated flight, which departed from Auckland Airport and flew over the Manukau Harbour.

Of nine criteria rated from poor to excellent, the site assessment found the park was “poor” or “adequate-to-poor” in four. It was not judged to be “excellent” in any criteria and to be “good” in only one.

The ministry confirmed in its May 1, 2020, OIA response to Save Robbies Park that they did not inform Ardern of the Boffa Miskell report.

“Generally, it is only major decisions that are taken up to the ministers for their approval and it is not typical to include all material which contribute to recommendations on those decisions,” the ministry said.

“The Boffa Miskell report was one of several pieces of work that informed the ministry’s recommendation on the preferred site for the National Erebus Memorial.

“In this instance, ministry officials reviewed the Boffa Miskell report and considered it alongside all the other relevant information before making a recommendation that Dove-Myer Robinson Park was the preferred option as the site for the memorial.

“The Prime Minister was briefed on this recommendation, as Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage.”

In November 2019, Ardern said she was “very comfortable” with planning for an Erebus memorial in the Parnell Rose Gardens despite the controversy surrounding it.