Opposition to seabed mining ramps up in Pātea

Tuesday, 1 October 2024

Protesters will march in Pātea on Wednesday to remind the Government of how much opposition there is to seabed mining in South Taranaki.

The action has been called ahead of the Government’s expected release this month of projects it wants considered under its new fast-track approvals process.

It is widely expected that a proposal by Australian-based mining company Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) will be on the list of major infrastructure projects included under the new 'one-stop shop' legislation.

Te Pati Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said her father Hemi Ngarewa, who had been seriously ill, had urged her to organise another protest.

“I think it’s really important as a community that we are showing the Government what we think,” she said.

“Dad’s 80, he has been around since the 1940s, and he said he can’t fathom how any Government could conscionably agree to this. Dad keeps reminding us to keep going for the next generation, to keep fighting it. He’ll be there no doubt.”

Ngarewa-Packer has led the fight against the project for 12 years.

“This is why I went to Parliament,” she said. “I was really clear-headed — I went in there because all the governments had ignored us.”

She said the current government was ignoring science and court rulings, and listening to mining lobbyists over Iwi, hapū and locals’ concerns.

“This government's lust for profit no matter the environmental damage is the biggest threat we’ve ever confronted,' she said.

Kiwis Against Seabed Mining chairperson Cindy Baxter said members of the South Taranaki community, iwi, Te Pati Maori, Kiwis Against Seabed mining, Climate Justice Taranaki and others will gather at the town’s Aotea Waka at 11am, before making a hikoi to Pātea Beach.

“We’ve taken seabed mining to the highest court in the land, and we’ve won, for good reason: it’s environmentally dangerous and an entirely untested industry,” she said.

“If Trans Tasman Resources gets approval under the fast-track process, it could set a precedent that could result in a mine site spanning literally hundreds of square kilometres in the South Taranaki Bight. The Government cannot allow this to go ahead.”

Also of concern was the fact that TTR had its mining permit extended from 66 square kilometres to 242sqkm, an area more than three times the sizeshe said.

“Once the first consent is through, this could set a precedent and open the floodgates to turn the bight into an industrial mine site.”

In an opinion piece published last week, TTR executive chairman Alan J Eggers said the transition from fossil fuels to a clean energy, electricity-driven economy “will require more mining for key mineral resources required in low-emissions technology — battery storage for renewables, electric vehicles such as buses and cars, and electrification of the economy — not less.

“In blunt terms, we can have less fossil fuel extraction, or less mineral mining for clean technologies, but we can’t have both,” he said.

“The Government recognises this. And this year it has upped its interest in the minerals sector by developing a draft minerals strategy, a draft critical minerals list and has requested a report from GNS Science outlining the country’s mineral endowment and opportunities for its development.”

He quoted Resources Minister Shane Jones as saying minerals, including vanadium, would not only add to the climate-change journey, but represent a new source of great wealth for New Zealand.