A Bay of Islands coastal lobby group is calling for the scrapping of legislation aimed at helping an Opua boatyard owner.
The Primary Production Select Committee has recommended clauses in a Government bill legalising the use of a foreshore reserve by Doug Schmuck.
The Bay of Islands Coastal Watchdog Society has written to the Speaker of the House, asking that the clauses be deleted.
It says the reserve is part of an important coastal walkway and the group would have strongly objected if it had been given a chance to submit.
Chair Maiki Marks says Mr Schmuck already has consent for his slipway, and no-one objects to that.
However, the proposed bill allows for a concrete washdown area and the cleaning or repair of boats on the reserve.
Mr Marks says the washing of boats is not compatible with the reserve's use as a coastal walkway.
Marine farm cited
An Auckland barrister says the select committee has also acted to legalise an unlawful marine farm.
Richard Brabant acts for the Auckland Yacht and Boating Association, and landowners who have been challenging the legality of a marine farm in Coromandel harbour.
He says in nine years, not one court has upheld the claims of the Coromandel Marine Farmers Association that the farm had consent.
Mr Brabant says the Primary Production Committee has intervened without telling the marine farm's opponents and slipped clauses into a bill giving the farm a retrospective permit.
He says it's a denial of natural justice to hear submissions only from those who stand to benefit.
