Loren Aberhart: ChristchurchNZ Destination and Attraction General Manager on SailGP leaving the city

A tough day for Christchurch sailing fans, who've watched SailGP in Lyttelton for the past two years.

It's been confirmed the event is leaving the city.

ChristchurchNZ Destination and Attraction General Manager, Loren Aberhart, says the main issue was the Marine Protection Act.

"It has restricted the ability to race in Lyttelton, because it's a marine mammal sanctuary."

SailGP says it's working to finalise next year's destinations through discussions with New Zealand and international partners.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now to something else. SALEGP has pulled the plug on
next year's event in Littleton. The New Zealand Herald understands
there will still be a New Zealand event included in
the sale GP schedule next year, but as of yet
nothing's been confirmed. Sale GP boss Sir Russell Coots made
it clear during this year's event in Littleton that he
wasn't happy that racing was stopped because of Hector's dolphins.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
With any decision like this, there needs to be a balance.
For example, one could say that because there's a chance
of a road death, that we shouldn't be allowed to
drive on the roads. I suspect most people would conclude
that such a stance would be far too extreme and
not practical.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Lauren Aberhart is christ Church, New Zealand, General Manager of
Destination and Attraction and is with us now.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Hey, Lauren, Hey, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:41):
I'm very well? Thank you? Are you guzzit? Or did
you see this coming?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (00:45):
We're incredibly disappointed. And we've been working for years with
SALGP and worked very hard on securing and retaining the
twenty twenty five events, so of course we disappointed.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
How much money are you guys? Are going to lose
as a result.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
So the economic compared or the visitors end was three
point three million for the last event, So that's disappointing.
But we do have a huge partline of major events
this summer that will okay continue.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Just Deloitte has priced at about twenty one million US
dollars for the area just from this event. Are they wrong?

Speaker 3 (01:15):
No, So that's a different methodology which takes into account
economic impact. So that's also right. We consider three point
three million of new visitors beend money. On top of
that is the event delivery cost which takes it up
to twenty one million.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
What could you guys have changed to keep it?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
So? The Marine Memal Protection Acts nineteen seventy eight is
a national piece of legislation. It's was passed in Parliament
many many years ago and has been something that has
restricted the ability to race in Littleton because it's a
marine menmal sanctuary. So complying with that piece of legislation
is largely what has created some of the operational challenges.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Was there a little bit Lauren? Was there a little
bit of discretion though that could have been used by
key players to maybe just make it a little easier or
was that not even available under the legislation? No discretion whatsoever.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
So we explored what the options were with the Department
of Conservation. They were very actively involved and gave us
the grant to run the event on the harbor. We
wanted to work through options for that. For the twenty
twenty five event that sal GP deemed that the time
frames and the potential to make changes were probably insurmountable
in that short time frame. So was from twenty four

(02:26):
We had twelve weeks, so we couldn't overturn legislation in
that time.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Was it possible? Was it possible that under the existing legislation,
Doc would have been able to change things enough potentially
for sale GP to be okay with it.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
It's incredibly dependent on the day where the dolphins are.
I think from Doc's perspective, because we all had twelve
weeks to turn around this most recent event, there was
no way to change the legislation. Potentially for twenty twenty five,
with a little bit more time and working with the minister,
we may have been able to look at what options were.
Agent deemed that too great a risk and if we.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Change the legislation, Lauren would we have been. Would it
have been like a free for all slice the dolphins
up or would it have been just at the edges.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Look, this is probably where I'm outside of my scope.
The legislation, as far as we understand it means that
we need to comply with it. The Department of Conservation
have been fantastic and working with us. From their perspective,
there's also an opportunity here where we have raised the
flight attectors dolphins through sale GP and we're just disappointed
we weren't able to continue that partnership for twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Okay, Lauren, thanks very much, really appreciate it. Lauren Aberhart
christ Ut Musie On, General Manager of Destination and Attraction.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
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