‘We’ve got everything to lose’: Locals defend their beach from mining

Sunday, 26 January 2025

Hundreds of Northland residents are protesting today against a mining company that’s applied to suck up their seabed, in a test of the controversial new fast-track legislation, reports Jonathan Killick.

“We’ve got everything to lose,” says Langs Beach resident Emma Hart.

“If we do nothing, they’re going to extract 8.5 million cubic metres of sand.”

Hart, a relative newcomer but passionate supporter of coastal Northland, is one of hundreds who have signed a petition and are expected to converge on the beach in opposition to McCallum Bros’ application to dredge Bream Bay for the next 35 years.

There is furious debate over what effect the dredging would have on the fragile ecosystem with similar applications having recently been rejected in other locations, but the company’s managing director Callum McCallum insists the impact would be “no more than minor”.

But this is much more than just a community dispute - at its heart it’s a test of the Government’s controversial fast-track legislation, which has caused several communities to feel their concerns are being sidelined in favour of short-term economic gain.

In this case, the gain is $300 million worth of sand, a key ingredient in making concrete needed to fuel the growth of Auckland, our largest city, with industry representatives claiming that shortages have already seen delays and increased costs.

But, for Northland, its golden shores are also seen as a source of regional economic vitality. The proposed area is offshore from some of the area’s most popular beaches including Langs, Waipū, Uretiti and Ruakākā.

“We come here because we want this paradise as it is … This is not a place to be commoditised and fed into the Auckland construction industry or private enterprise,” says Hart.

But, McCallum retorts that it’s been long exploited.

“It is the entrance to one of NZ’s busiest ports, [and is] an anchorage for bulk ships, log carriers and super tankers, hosts commercial fisheries activity, including long-lining and bottom trawling, as well as being previously intensively dredged for scallops,” he tells the Sunday Star-Times.

The justification from the Government for fast-tracking projects has been job creation and economic stimulus, but Hart says her region is being pillaged.

“They’ll dredge at night and go back to Auckland with the sand. Tell me where the jobs are? Tell me where the money is?”

Meanwhile, the company has come fresh off a fight with another community, only 30km away in Pākiri, having been ordered to pay an historic $500,000 in costs after locals hired their own experts to expose environmental damage allegedly caused by decades of dredging.

Now it’s trying it on again, claims Hart, emboldened by the fast-track process. “You’re trying to do business in a place you’re not wanted.”

McCallum tells the Star-Times the company is appealing the Pākiri decision, but says there have been “learnings”.

He says he’s tried reaching out to the Bream Bay community protest group to address their concerns, but hasn’t had a response.

That’s because Hart isn’t having it.

“Cups of tea allaying our fears without the data is futile,” she says.

Hart has challenged McCallum to release the full technical reports that the company is basing their applications on, so they can be independently scrutinised.

He tells the Star-Times they will be released in due course once they’ve been finalised, but its a promise he is under no obligation to keep.

The fast-track process by its very definition is able to bypass lengthy hearings where evidence could be contested by concerned residents. That doesn’t mean Hart and her Stop Bream Bay Sand Mining cohort won’t try.

On Sunday, hundreds of residents from across the 22km embayment are meeting on the beach to stand in formation and spelling out the word “NO”.

“Such opposition to such a hotly contested proposal needs a hearing. We want to be in front of the panellists to give [our perspective] as a community that does not want the most valuable asset taken and sold for profit,” says Hart.

No fish and no beach

Among the protesters is Whangārei’s Steve Bowling, a civil construction contractor who knows the importance of concrete supply. But, he says there are things more important in life.

“For us every Sunday we’d go and get a bucket of pipi and make fritters and enjoy that lifestyle but that’s had to be shut down, and I am worried that my grandchildren will never be able to get a feed of pipi and scallops.”

There’s been a ban on taking scallops of that area of the bay since 2022, and Bowling says that as a keen diver he’s personally witnessed that the rāhui is working.

“But, these guys are just going to go out there right where the scallops are and kill off what we are trying to save. To me it’s madness really.”

Sue Crawford of Whangārei Heads knows how fragile the environment can be after having lost her home to Cyclone Gabrielle and seeing her local bay ravaged by the storm.

“The beaches were scoured with metres of sand gone. At Smugglers Cove it was down to bare rock,” she says.

Crawford says the beach has slowly begun to replenish over the years since, but worries that if the seabed is mined, natural healing processes won’t be able to occur.

“My fear is that after a storm like that, that would be the end. There wouldn’t be a beach any more.”

Michael Morrison of Langs Beach says he’s not particularly fond of the idea of having a beach house with no beach, and he can’t imagine anyone else would be.

“Langs, Waipū and Mangawhai and surrounding areas are only there because of the beach essentially. It’s the driver of a lot of the economics in the area.”

“A beach with only rocks and no fish would certainly not be an attraction for most people.”

Mining’s tenuous social licence

Wayne Scott of mining lobby Aggregate and Quarry Association (AQA) says in the 40 years he’s been in the industry, there’s always been protest.

“The reality of life is that everyone wants and needs the product, but no one wants it extracted in their backyard.

“You can't just pick a good location that's away from people dig a hole and get what you want. The resources are where they're located.”

He says Auckland has “an insatiable demand” for sand and there have been instances in recent years where the supply ran dry for days at a time.

“It’s a mad scramble, and basically suppliers can start naming their price. It leads to delays with people putting off concrete pours.”

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s demand for aggregate per capita is the third-highest in the world, he says.

“Mainly because we’ve got 110,000km of road for 5 million people and 65% of that aggregate sand goes into roading.”

Scott says the Fast-track Approvals Act has been a welcome change for the industry, with consent application processes costing companies “millions” and often taking years. But, he acknowledges the industry needs to work to keep the public on-board.

“Social licence is a lot more important to us than resource consent to be perfectly blunt with you, because if we don’t meet society’s expectations, we won’t exist.”

Cindy Baxter of Kiwis Against Sand Mining (KASM) calls the fast track process “draconian”.

“The [panels] will be given lovely glowing reports from so-called experts funded by the company, and they won't see anything else.”

She’s not buying Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s comments that we have become an “obstruction economy”.

“No, it’s becoming a ‘destruction economy’, that’s what they’re doing. They just want to dig stuff up and never mind.”

Baxter says it’s all eyes on Bream Bay to see whether enough pressure can be put on the appointed fast-track panel to allow a community group to be heard.

And, Hart is aware of the burden on their shoulders, but says the community is totally committed to their fight.

“When you’ve got a proposal that impacts every single person living in the bay, people mobilise very quickly.

“We are fighting for a future that goes well beyond the 35-year consent.”