A reply from the Minister of Conservation
The Minister of Conservation has replied to the petition asking for the protection of East Harbour Regional Park.
Although the Minister believes that there was an intention to continue treating the land as a reserve, the fact that the land did not have reserve status has been acknowledged.
As it turns out, the new Gazette notice confirming the reserve status is entirely a moot point. The government has introduced a new bill, the Urban Development Bill. This was introduced just before Christmas and the period for submissions has now closed. This proposal will give the power to remove all covenants (including QEII covenants) and brings nearly every type of local reserve into the sights of developers.
So although a new Gazette notice confirms the reserve status of the East Harbour Regional Park, this reserve and nearly every local purpose reserve is about to be thrown open to developers. The Greens, National, New Zealand First and Labour all support the bill.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_y7aC2RaKueUuirEhH2O-vJTt_6I900s