Energy And Shipping Decisions Needed Before Meatworks - Chatham Islands Mayor

Friday, 18 April 2025, 12:30 pm
Article: RNZ

Russell Palmer, Political Reporter

The Chatham Islands are welcoming attention from the government, but say energy and shipping decisions are needed before a meatworks supported by the government can proceed.

Those concerns will pose a challenge to the relatively rapid timeframe Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has set for funding decisions.

Jones took a delegation of more than 70 people to New Zealand's most isolated community on Wednesday, making use of the Defence Force's new C-130J Hercules delivered in September. The aim was to encourage bids for the remaining cash in his $1.2 billion Regional Investment Fund, of which about $580 million had already been spent.

"This particular summit is an attempt to plug the gap of neglect. For a long period of time, the leadership of the Chathams have felt neglected," he said.

Chatham Islands mayor Monique Croon's speech highlighted that for 600-700 people living on the islands, infrastructure development was desperately needed.

"We are not just remote, we are exposed to every pressure the world is facing right now. Climate change is not abstract for us, rising seas and storm surges threaten homes, biodiversity and lifeline infrastructure. Global supply chain disruptions hit harder here - everything arrives by boat or plane. And as world powers compete and trade relationships shift, the ripple effects are not theoretical: they're felt at our fuel pump, on our wharf, in our homes.

"While central government talks about getting back to basics, our message is simple: here on the Chathams, we're still fighting to get up to the basics," she said, and - emulating the government's language - "when we do, we intend to deliver those basics brilliantly because that's what it takes to unlock growth."

She later told reporters that along with critical concerns about shipping and energy prices, the community also needed improved housing, water and waste systems.

"We had an application to council received ... for 22 houses in waiting, we had to say no, because we didn't have enough capacity in our water and wastewater system," she said.

"Water or waste, we're struggling to deliver a level of service to the island that ... is acceptable, so we have to really work together to improve those services."

Minister endorses mobile meatworks

Jones was aiming to offload the rest of the RIF's funding ahead of the coming election - government processes meaning it would need to be allocated before July next year. He told locals he would "strongly urge you to support" a council bid for a portable meatworks through the fund.

"I know that there's a lot of interest in it ... 2026 is the year of the election, we need to move our projects. In the event that you want to work with us, sooner rather than later, please put in that application," he said.

The minister's speeches often divert from his notes, which in this case contained no mention of the meatworks plan - and it was a surprise for Chatham Islands mayor Monique Croon. She said a meatworks had been talked about there for a long time, but the mobile approach was one of two options being considered, the other being a permanent plant that could also process fish.

"I think there is some merit in that," she told reporters, when asked what her preferred option was. "The risk was, with a portable abattoir, because of the harsh environment if you're moving it round it gets rusty and it could break down easily ... [but] setting up a permanent one would be more expensive.

"There's also the requirement for water and disposal and waste. All those things would have to be considered."

'Eight or nine' options for ship replacement

Croon said the Chathams' biggest priority - a more permanent supply shipping solution to replace the MV Southern Tiare - would affect the calculation too.

"Until the shipping solution is come up with and what that looks like, that will determine the requirements around an abattoir," she said. "It will be important ... if the ship's not big enough - that there's an opportunity to process here."

The 39-year-old supply ship is critical for transporting fuel, livestock and seafood around the islands, but has become increasingly unreliable. It was the ship's ongoing maintenance that meant about 5700 sheep and cattle killed on the islands last year went unused.

The previous government in 2022 allocated $35.1m to both keep the ship running and build a new ship, but the cost of repairs rose from $6m to $10m and the coalition chose not to proceed with the new ship build - instead seeking a solution from the private sector.

The government last month confirmed an open tender process, and Croon said many parties had registered their interest in providing a service.

Jones said the government wanted the shipping problem "solved ASAP", but had been advised the area near the wharf at the island's township of Waitangi may need dredging.

There were eight or nine options for a replacement, he said, and while he could not yet reveal cost estimates he played down concerns about that.

"It won't be, in my view, terribly expensive to do a bit of dredging at the wharf, weather dependent," he said.

"We need to solve the ongoing drama of a vessel. But more importantly there were over 5000 animals culled here last year because there was no way of getting them off the island and there was no way to process them and turn them into pet food.

"I hope to address that problem, find the money and establish in partnership with the Chathams an abattoir so we don't see 5000 animals go to waste, rotting in the paddock."

The price of power

Croon said power was also a concern for setting up a meatworks.

The Chathams is set to see its sky-high power prices - $1.29 per kWh, compared to the 35-cent average paid on the mainland - come down when three new wind turbines and a battery system paid for out of the 2023 Budget come into operation in June, and the hope is that will be enough to allow a meatworks to go ahead.

"Every time we've done a feasibility for an abattoir in the past, 'no, we can't do it because the energy [cost] is too high'. So hopefully that opens up the doors for island businesses to operate, I mean, if you talk about Hotel Chathams I think that they would get a bill of $22,000 a month for electricity, and that's just unaffordable."

She said more renewable energy was definitely on the wishlist when it came to infrastructure, and one option would be rooftop solar that could feed into the grid.

"Certainly we don't want to be reliant on diesel, renewable is the better option for the environment, but also again affordability is key," she said.

"If you're looking at an average cost of a system, it's $50,000 probably per household. So what we would like to do is look at the capital and what that cost would be ... the challenge here is, as you can see, we're spread far out all over the island."

That wasn't helped by the fact only half the island's houses were connected to the grid, she said, and with the large distances involved, the cost of servicing the lines could be high.

The two 225kw turbines built on the islands in 2010 were dismantled after provider BlueNRGY Group got into financial difficulties in 2014, four years into the two-decade public-private partnership.

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