Deputy PM Speaks Out After Major Sailing Event Abandoned Due to Dolphin Sighting

New Zealand has already lost out on several major sporting events, an issue Winston Peters says is due to overregulation.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters (R) in the crowd as farmer lobby group Groundswell NZ gathers in Auckland to raise awareness and urge people to vote in the general election on October 14 at Ellerslie Racecourse on October 01, 2023 in Auckland, New Zealand. Fiona Goodall/Getty Images

NZ First leader and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has taken a swipe at what he says are “overly influential bureaucratic processes” which may signal the end of the New Zealand leg of the Sail GP.

SailGP is a global sailing championship that features some of the world’s best sailors competing in high-speed, high-performance F50 catamarans. The event was created by New Zealand-born Olympic Gold Medallist sailor Sir Russell Coutts, who now serves as its chief executive.

Last week, during the New Zealand leg held at Christchurch’s Lyttleton Harbour, Mr. Coutts slammed what he termed as an “extreme” policy of marine animal management after a race on Saturday was initially delayed by the sighting of a Hector’s Dolphin in the race zone.

After the dolphin failed to move on after two hours, the day’s racing was abandoned.

The race’s animal management plan states racing must stop for 20 minutes after an animal is last seen. There are about 15,000 Hector’s Dolphins in the wild and they are known to breed at this time of year in the Harbour.

Race organisers were bound by wildlife management plans developed by the Department of Conservation, Environment Canterbury, and local iwi (tribe) Ngāti Wheke. 

Mr. Coutts vented his frustrations publically saying that other users of Lyttleton were not subjected to such “restrictive” protocols and no similar restrictions apply in other countries on the Sail GP tour.

He added the incident was “another example of New Zealand being handcuffed by unprecedented layers of bureaucracy and red tape,” before adding, “inherently, as a society, we accept an element of risk in our daily lives.”

The prospect of Sail GP not returning to New Zealand for future events was speculated on by Mr. Coutts.

“International teams spent considerable amounts of money on sending their teams to New Zealand to compete. There are a lot of considerations in managing an event like this, yet almost none of those are not being properly considered by the environmental and harbour authorities here in Christchurch.”

New Zealand Risks Losing Major Sporting Events: Peters

If Sail GP is to leave New Zealand’s shores it would be the latest in a list of prominent sporting events to bypass New Zealand due to perceived overarching bureaucracy, that critics say, fails to see the big picture.

The America’s Cup, currently held by Team New Zealand, has its next event scheduled for Barcelona in August this year.

Unusually for a defender, the event is not being hosted in the syndicate’s home territory after CEO Grant Dalton rejected a NZ$99 million joint offer from the New Zealand government and Auckland Council in 2021—citing significant underinvestment.

New Zealand’s 20-year run of hosting a stop on the World Rugby Sevens tour was also stopped after organisers decided to exclude Hamilton as a venue—after reported low revenue—to pursue more economically viable locations.

Team New Zealand currently holds the America's Cup but will defend their title later this year away from home in Barcelona. ACEA 2017 / Photo Gilles Martin-Raget

Mr. Peters echoed the sentiments of Mr. Coutts on March 26 via his X (Twitter) account.

“We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP have spot-lighted the overly influential bureaucratic processes, power-drunk government departments, and some decision-makers who clearly care more about their fiefdoms than our country’s economic development and international reputation.”

Mr. Peters said organisers were too focused on unnecessary compliance.

“These groups do nothing but stymie any sort of future prosperity for our country and ignorantly sabotage our economy and our future on the international stage. SailGP in 2019 saw an average economic return at the hosting cities of $37 million. In Spain this year they set a record of over $90 million.”

Mr Peters added that New Zealand had become “so inward-looking, and our vision clouded by nonsensical ‘moral and cultural roadblocks,’ that we have allowed ourselves to travel down this spiralling path.”

Speaking on TVNZ’s Breakfast television show on March 25, ACT Party leader David Seymour also fired his barbs at the “layers of bureaucracy” that affected the Lyttleton Harbour sailings.

“In order to do something you have to work with people whose only power is to say ‘no’ and go through a byzantine set of rules that don’t make sense,” Mr. Seymour said.

To remedy the issue of losing major sporting events, NZ First’s Mr. Peters said New Zealand needed to become a “‘can-do’ country that prioritises common sense and productivity.”

He called for a better balance of considerations between economic benefits versus environmental preservation.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon concurred, saying, “There is way too much red tape and obstruction on the economy. Everything is slowed up and as a result that doesn’t make us a great place if you want to run a global event.”