Rena owner Daina Shipping and insurer The Swedish Club will be filing for resource consent to leave the remains of the cargo ship on the Astrolabe Reef

Senior representatives from the companies will meet face to face with iwi and community spokespeople this week – but a Ngai Te Hapu spokesperson says the Motiti Island hapu is very disappointed at the announcement.

'The owners have been given very clear notice at meetings with Ngai Te Hapu and other iwi groups that leaving the remainder of the wreck on the reef was not an option,” says Ngai Te Hapu spokesperson Buddy Mikaere.

'It is simply not negotiable and offers by the owners and insurers of improvements to infrastructure on the island in an endeavour to persuade the hapu to change its mind will not work.

Following the return of the representatives to New Zealand, it is expected lodgement of the resource consent application will happen between the end of March and May 2014, according to Captain John Owen, of the Swedish Club.

The date remains uncertain because of ongoing delays in the planned removal of the accommodation block, with ship salvors Resolve Salvage and Fire being ready to start since last December, but marine conditions making the undertaking impossible.

'The decision was reached after extensive engagement over 18-months, on the future of the wreck with iwi and representatives of the Bay of Plenty communities, including several extensions to Resolve Salvage and Fire's scope of work since July 2012,” says John.

He says the resource consent application – which will be lodged with Bay of Plenty Regional Council – will include an assessment of environmental effects 'and will provide interested parties with a comprehensive body of information on the proposal for the future of the wreck – including proposed conditions in relation to environmental monitoring, wreck access and shore management, if consent is granted”.

'However, our main concern at present is the removal of the accommodation block and the fact that salvors have not been able to find even one of the two weather windows needed to perform this operation safely.”

While awaiting perfect weather for removal of the ship's four-storey accommodation block, Resolve Salvage and Fire is preparing to cut and remove a 590 tonne piece of wreckage, with hopes this will allow them to access and recover the last remaining container of plastic beads in the wreck.

The container ship Rena struck Astrolabe Reef on October 5, 2011; later breaking up, with the aft section sliding down the reef's slope leaving the stern in water 50 metres deep.

The current situation further confirms the owners and insurers technical advisors' views of the challenges associated with the practicality, safety and duration of any further wreck-removal works, says John.

'Once complete, this work will reflect an operational spend in excess of NZ$350 million over the more than 900 days since the casualty. It is intended to leave the wreck in an environmentally benign state, whereby the occupied area of the reef, less than two per cent, can continue to rejuvenate over time.”

When the application is lodged with the regional council, information will also be made available from the Rena Project and the council's websites. Interested parties will be able to make submissions on the application as part of the consent process.

But Buddy says Motiti Island hapu is very disappointed at the announcement by Rena's owners and insurers of their intention to apply for resource consents to leave the remainder of the wreck on the Otaiti (Astrolabe) Reef.

'Some people say we are only doing this to leverage up the money that the owners might pay us to disappear with our protest. Well let me say unequivocally, that that is wrong. There are more important considerations here than the money.”

'Our hapu, acting on behalf of other iwi groups and indeed all right thinking New Zealanders, cannot countenance corporate shipping companies coming to our part of the world and doing this to us.

Buddy believes at the end of the day, applying to leave the remainder of the wreck and the detritus of its cargo on the reef and seabed, is just an attempt to avoid spending money to completely remove the wreck.

'It avoids the responsibility the owners and insurers have to restore the environment and the mauri of this pristine reef to the condition it was in before they crashed the Rena into it.”

Salvage divers working on the wreck have told hapu members it is technically possible to safely remove the wreckage and clean up the site, says Buddy.

'It might take a long time, and it may cost them a lot of money, but that's not our concern. We don't care how much they have spent on wreck removal and cargo salvage to date. So what? It's just peanuts against the marine insurance indemnity fund available to them of billions of dollars which will easily pay for complete removal.”

'We may be a small hapu on this tiny island at the bottom of the South Pacific, but it is our ancestral home and that reef represents an important part of our heritage. We believe we have a responsibility on behalf of our descendants – and just as importantly for all New Zealanders who love our wonderful shared Bay of Plenty environment – to take this stand,” says Buddy.

'Yes, we don't have resources; and yes, we will probably have to do things like sell cakes and run raffles to fight the case through the Environment Court, but we will give it our all.

Buddy says the situation not a David versus Goliath-type dilemma. 'It's more Maori mouse versus corporate elephant, but we are going to give it our best shot because we have to.”

'Otaiti Reef has been a taonga to us from the time it was first discovered by our ancestors and it has been a constant source of sustenance to our people over centuries. In recent times we have been happy to share the bounty of the reef with others but now's the time for all of us to pay the debt we owe for this great gift.”

Apart from environmental concerns about the ongoing effects of the marine paints, chemical and cargo residues, the wreck offends the mauri of the reef, the life force that Maori believe to be inherent in all things, says Buddy.

The wreck is also of a magnitude that prevents the hapu from exercising the kaitiakitanga or the guardianship role.

Ngai Te Hapu can't afford to have it removed but because the owners put it there, it is their responsibility to take it away, says Buddy.

Meanwhile, Ngai Te Hapu has a forthcoming urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing where the hapu will be seeking a recommendation from the Tribunal that the notice issued by Maritime New Zealand in 2011 to remove the wreck of the Rena be enforced by Government.