Tauranga welcomes Stella decision

IN A draft decision that should bring Tauranga closer to the end of as long-running saga, a fast-track expert panel has issued a draft approval of the port’s Stella Passage expansion project.

The decision, subject to conditions, proposes to grant all approvals sought by Port of Tauranga with the company given two days to comment on the proposed conditions. Other parties will also be given the opportunity to comment before a final decision is due in early September.

The Stella Passage development involves extending the Sulphur Point container berth by 385 metres (in two stages) and the Mount Maunganui wharves by 315 metres, by converting existing cargo storage land within the port’s current footprint.

It also involves associated reclamation of the land behind the new wharves and dredging of the passage.

Port of Tauranga (PoT) chief executive Leonard Sampson said the draft decision was very welcome news. “This development is vital for the regional and national economy and is urgently needed as we are currently at capacity.

“The Stella Passage development will bring widespread economic benefits, reduce costs for importers and exporters and unlock decarbonisation opportunities. We will work with our advisory team to respond to the proposed conditions within the panel’s deadline,” he said.

It is now 24 years since aspects of the project were first proposed. The current version has been repeatedly bogged down in red tape, environmental and resource consents legal challenges.

In mid-April last year PoT lodged an application under New Zealand’s Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 in an effort to overcome delays in the environmental approvals process. However, PoT in August 2025 reported that a judicial review of the port’s application for the Stella Passage development had been upheld, with the High Court determining that the Environmental Protection Authority should not have accepted the port’s application as the project was not as described in schedule 2 of the legislation.

The Judge’s decision agreed that whilst it may have been left out by mistake, there was no discretion, and the EPA should not have accepted the application based of the current wording in the schedule of the legislation.

“We are turning away shipping lines that want to call at Tauranga. In the last month, the port has had to turn away a proposed new service to the Americas [MSC’s Eagle] that would have provided NZ importers and exporters with an estimated NZ$65 million to $90 million per annum in international freight savings. The delays are preventing a much-needed boost to the NZ economy,” Mr Sampson said at the time.

The Environment Court has already established that the environmental impact from the Stella Passage development will, from a Western science perspective, be minor in the short-term and negligible in the long-term. However, PoT had been unable to reach agreement with opposing iwi and hapū parties on the appropriate level of mitigation for the cultural impacts of the development.