Govt denies rumour of Golden Bay aid

Press, 18 May 1984, Page 2

Govt denies rumour of Golden Bay aid

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Parliament Rumours have been rife in Nelson for the last two days that Golden Bay is about to receive $6 million in regional development assistance, but the suggestion has been denied by the Government. The Minister of Regional Development, Mr Birch, is due in Nelson in a few weeks and the substance of the rumour was that his visit would coincide with the announcement of the assistance. However, Mr Birch has dispelled suggestions that Golden Bay would get $6 million. About $6 million in Government funds would be made available this year for regional development assistance between the 11 regions of New Zealand that had been designated “priority” areas for regional development assistance, he said. If Golden Bay were declared a “slow growth” area by the Government (which it had not) then it too would have access to these funds, he said.

However, there were still several prerequisites that Golden Bay had to meet before being eligible:

@ The Nelson Bays/ Golden Bay Regional Development Council needed to be established. © The Government would need to agree that Golden Bay be declared a “slow growth” area. Both questions were being considered by the Government and were being discussed with regional interests, Mr Birch said.

He would also recommend to the Government that it declare Golden Bay a “slow growth” area. Referring to the $6 million rumour, Mr Birch said that the amount of money that could be made available to Golden Bay if it were declared a “slow growth” area would depend on the number of qualifying applications received from the Golden Bay area. Sir Wallace Rowling (Lab., Tasman) said that he could not support any move to make Golden Bay, on its own, a regional development area — it would have to be a sub-region within Nelson.

However, Nelson province should be a regional development area; Marlborough was, and it had access to much greater transport benefits through

the railways and ferries than Nelson had.

Within a Nelson regional development area, Golden Bay had certain special problems, such as the threat to close the cement works, he said. If this threat went ahead and the works did close, then that would put Golden Bay at a great economic disadvantage. “I hope it doesn’t happen,” Sir Wallace Rowling said, and it shouldn’t with the new port facilities and the skilled work-force available. All that is needed is an upswing in the housing industry.”