Shane Jones a ‘bully and hypocrite’: Sam Neill fires back over controversial gold mine
Thursday, 11 December 2025
Hollywood star Sam Neill has labelled Resources Minister Shane Jones a “bully” and a “hypocrite” over a controversial gold mine proposed for Central Otago.
Neill has joined others in strongly criticising Santana Minerals’ huge open-cast mine planned near Cromwell, calling it “toxic” and “an environmental catastrophe”.
Jones responded saying the mine would create jobs, and “very few of us have been born with the privileged professional existence that Sam has had.
“He may have starred in Jurassic Park, but he is wrong, and anti-Kiwi, to say that mining is going to have Jurassic implications. And he should not be allowed to state and run those arguments, unfettered, just because he’s a famous Hollywood actor,” Jones told The Post last month.
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Neill, who has lived most of his life in Otago, where he now runs a vineyard, and whose family has lived there since 1861, said it was “slightly pathetic” Jones had turned an important issue into a personal attack.
“I don’t know much about Shane Jones, but this is clear: The man is a bully. And a hypocrite.”
Neill pointed to Jones’ changed position on mining - from damning it when a Labour MP in 2010, to now being its biggest supporter, as a New Zealand First minister in the coalition government.
“He has himself held at least two diametrically opposed views on New Zealand mining. Not long ago, he was adamantly against, for environmental reasons. Now, he vows to ‘turbocharge’ the mining industry, at 'weapons-grade level’.
“He puzzlingly sees me as ‘born into professional privilege'. This is bizarre, given I have worked hard, and quietly, for 53 years in the film industry. There was no film industry to speak of when I started out.
“I am a primary producer here, and run a business employing a small, dedicated team of people. Shane Jones does not live here.
“He talks of job opportunities. He says nothing about the consequent and long-term loss of jobs in tourism, hospitality, vineyards, orchards etc, as the district inevitably turns into a toxic tip.”
Neill said Central Otago was booming, and didn’t need the mines Jones was championing.
“Which he would know if he bothered to visit, and talk to people other than executives of an Australian mining company, an outfit that stands to reap vast profits at our expense. To use his own corny phrase, to be so enamoured of a foreign mining company sounds ‘anti-Kiwi’ to me.
“He wants to saddle us with permanent landscape destruction, and a long-term environmental liability that will forever foul what makes our place special to anyone that lives here or visits.
“I might take Shane Jones more seriously if someone had bothered to actually elect him to this position of unfettered power. They did not.
“In addition, I have never liked bullies.
Meanwhile, Jones has continued to attack opponents of Santana’s mine proposal which is currently in the Fast-track process, and if approved, could begin in mid-2026.
In a Facebook post, Jones introduced himself as “your tenacious advocate for the minerals sector”, and promised to double New Zealand’s mining production within 10 years.
“Look, I haven’t got time for these nutrition-deprived crocodiles and their false tears pretending that every time we do something to Mother Earth here in New Zealand, we’re irreversibly damaging our environment.”
Jones said trade-offs were needed if New Zealand was going to attract investment and provide jobs, so it didn’t rely on imports from other countries.
He then took a swipe at the community closest to the proposed mine, Tarras, mispronouncing it “Ta-rass”.
“To all of my opponents down in Tarras in Otago, we’re spending a mighty fortune on building you a hospital in Dunedin.
“The rest of New Zealand needs you to help do the heavy lifting, and stand aside so we can boost the extractive sector to meet the costs not only of employment need, but the hospitals, the roads, and other key infrastructure outcomes for New Zealand.”
And responding to Neill’s comments on Thursday afternoon, Jones challenged the actor to a debate about the mine.
“I’m disappointed that such a strong, well-known global figure, Sam, has tried to pick a row with me as a politician, when my role is to promote economic growth.”
Calling Neill’s comments “reckless”, Jones said he got his mandate from 2.8 million New Zealanders who voted.
“I don’t get my mandate from cinema goers. I don’t get my mandate from Jurassic Park.”
He said his message to Neill and other opponents was to “stick to your knitting.
“Stop treating the environment as your personal property. The environment down there has had merino sheep. It’s had Europeans let rabbits go. It’s got wallabies.
“So the fact the miners want to have another crack, and the place was already mined in the past, I just think is selective hypocrisy.
“But anyway, if the star of Jurassic Park ever wants to have a proper debate with the Matua, name the time and place.”
Jones said nobody was wanting to disfigure the environment, but it wasn’t unreasonable to look for economic activity to pay for things like Dunedin’s new hospital.
“And as for these bubble-wrapped critics of mine, who assert that in 120, 130 years the tailings dam might fail - well, in 100 years a meteorite might strike.”
Suze Keith, the chair of Sustainable Tarras, the main community group opposing Santana’s proposal, warned the mine would bring a huge range of long-term risks and costs to the region’s economy, including the tourism and agricultural sectors.
“Central Otago is already one of the fastest growing districts in New Zealand, with one of the lowest rates of unemployment, and high levels of housing unaffordability. And its existing economy depends strongly on the outstanding natural landscapes and natural environments that stand to be severely impacted by this Fast-track mine.
'After having been ignored by Santana Minerals for months, it's ironic that Shane Jones addresses the Tarras community directly, even if he chooses to debase the issues at hand by mispronouncing our place name, and ‘talking’ to us on Twitter.
Suggesting the mine would pay for hospitals and roads was “disingenuous”, Keith said.
“If he bothered to speak with, and, better still, listen to a broad representation of the Tarras community, he'd be clear just how out of touch he is sponsoring extractive mining by an Australian company in our community.'