It was a marathon meeting yesterday to decide on the Erebus memorial. While I was not in NZ at the time I was very closely connected to a similar disaster in the UK, the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise. My father worked for the same cross channel ferry company as a purser. It could have been him. Just as with Erebus, the blame was put onto an incompetent member of staff, despite there being serious systemic issues as well. The government of the day was reluctant to damage the reputation of a large British company. Victims, were treated with pity and the crew with some contempt. The local council provided woodland as a memorial for those who died.
The Erebus accident is as controversial and the memorial process controversial again. Many in the community felt that while they supported a memorial they would be losing a tranche of the commons, valuable green space and play space in a city that is losing gardens and trees with every new development it seems. Indeed the memorial is very large. The family of Dove Meyer Robinson felt that the memorial would diminish the mana of Auckland's most popular mayor, and they would be right.
The families of victims however would have been gutted if their loss and pain over the years had not been both acknowledged and the mana of their relatives raised and their names remembered. They made their case, some unable to speak for their distress stayed outside the room. For them this must have been an extraordinarily difficult time. The WLB design guidelines asked for the memorial "to fit in with the natural landscape", the Ministry of Culture & Heritage brief was "be bold" - capture the grandeur of the Antarctic and the spirit of adventure. It was inevitable that this would be as David Seymour put it a zero sum game.
I foreshadowed a motion to look for another location that will not be at the heart of a suburb being rapidly intensified and needing green space, to somewhere that had the support from the community, where the whole story could be told and people could reflect on everything that was learned from Erebus. The importance of integrity in our government and public servants, the celebration of an adventurous spirit, the brevity of life, the courage of those who fought for the truth. Motat would have been an excellent place, or a new park, or somewhere else. Council has, as it has through this process, tried to support the Ministry of Culture and Heritage to find such a place to have a better outcome knowing of the community's distress. The Ministry rejected these offers but we were assured by council staff that they would be able to help if requested to do so.
I failed in my effort. There was little confidence that despite reassurances to the contrary there would be the appetite or funding left to continue this process that has become so painful to so many. And so here we are.
I hope that the memorial is honoured and not vandalised, though that is foreseeable. I hope it does not make women feel unsafe using the paths because they cannot see who is in the tunnel as they approach. I hope that children do feel comfortable playing in the space and it is not used for sleeping under or drinking in. I hope very very much that the constituent with some expertise in these matters is wrong about the chances of weakening the cliff edge, or damaging the pohutakawa, which is such a beloved tree of children who like to climb it. I hope that the apartment dwellers will enjoy the new addition to the park even if it does reduce the flat area that is good for picnics and hanging out in. Cities are ruptured and change and that is what makes them exciting, some ruptures turn out well, some do not. I hope my concerns are unjustified. I hope the outcomes are good. I did my best.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/zeebrugge-ferry-disaster-ms-herald-free-enterprise-uk-30-years-maritime-tragedy-killed-a7583131.html?fbclid=IwAR1BfD33ySD_U_72CMypeneQzX4_70ZxIKQL5nf5XSW-_PmhdNLJzX-MJqk