Today this small group of activists gathered outside the Ministry to protest what was going on inside. Specifically, they were protesting the government's decision to open up a significant portion of the conservation estate for mining. In a speech to the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Minister of Energy and Resources Gerry Brownlee stated that:
There is no doubt that New Zealand is a mineral rich country.
A recent report by Richard Barker estimated our metallic mineral potential to have a gross in-ground value in excess of $140 billion, with lignite alone at least an additional $100 billion.
[...]
For my part, as Minister of Energy and Resources, I am committed to unlocking New Zealand’s mineral potential for the benefit of all New Zealanders, both present and future.
[...]
In my short time as Minister I have become acutely aware that one of the fundamental barriers to mineral exploration and development is access to prospective land, particularly to land administered by the Department of Conservation.
Reasonable access to the mineral estate in Crown-owned land, particularly conservation land, is a key issue.
There are obviously competing objectives here but there is scope to explore how economic development objectives could be better reconciled with other land values.
There is the potential for more flexible arrangements that do not undermine conservation and environmental objectives.
The Minister of Conservation and I have agreed that officials from Crown Minerals and DOC are to work together with a clear directive to make progress on improved access to conservation land across three fronts.
These are, first, a review of Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act.
Second, improvements to DOC processes for access arrangements
And third, consultation on the reclassification of DOC administered land
I now want to briefly discuss each of these areas of work in more detail.
Starting with Schedule Four, let me put it into perspective.
I understand that DOC administered land hosts a majority of our mineral potential – an estimated 70%
About 40% of that land is listed in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act.
That means something like 30% of our most prospective land is off limits because the Minister of Conservation is not allowed to enter into any access arrangement for any area described in Schedule 4, except for certain low impact activities.
This effectively precludes all mining activities and most exploration activities on that land.
Collectively the areas currently covered by Schedule 4 make up around 13% of New Zealand’s total land area and include the highest value conservation areas.
Some of the areas within Schedule 4 are known to host significant potential for zinc, lead, copper, nickel, tin, tungsten and other metals.
The current inclusion of these highly prospective areas in Schedule 4 has potentially denied significant opportunity for economic benefit at both a national and regional level.
I have directed Crown Minerals to undertake a strategic review to determine areas possessing significant mineral potential that, with the removal of the access prohibition provided by Schedule 4, could through responsible mining techniques contribute considerably to our prosperity.
Full disclosure: I report to Minister Brownlee in his capacity as Minister for Economic Development. So I can't and won't go into the rights and wrongs of this argument. However, it is worth examining this in comparative terms. There's a total of NZ$240 billion in minerals, much of which sits in the conservation estate. Compare that to the total value of goods and services produced yearly in NZ - about NZ$180 billion. In other words, if everyone in the country were to stop doing what they were doing and mine instead, they could support themselves at the same level for roughly one and one-third years. I leave you to decide whether that's a lot of dosh or not.
The protesters, one of whom was shouting into a megaphone, seemed to have two key messages. First, they thought that the indigenous biodiversity held in the conservation estate was more valuable than the dollars gained through mineral extraction. Second, they were opposed to the fact that most mining companies were overseas owned, and hence repatriated the profits offshore rather than keeping them circulating in local communities.
Some of it was incoherent - such as their leaflet, which was inexplicably printed in small font. (Said leaflet mixed opposition to mining on conservation land with poorly-stated anticorporate and anticapitalist messages, e.g. "By opening up land protected under Schedule 4 to support an unsustainable destructive industry that will further enrich those at the top of our capitalist 'democracy', the government would directly jeopardise the survival of our already ecosystems and thereby, not help, but destroy the quality of life for future generations." Too much!) Other bits of propaganda were more succinct - such as the chant "Parks are for people, not profits".
I went outside to check out the scene during my lunch break. There were police officers in the lobby and looking on from the sides. Afterward, Anne tried to bike home, without a helmet, and was stopped and questioned for ten minutes by a police officer. (Evidently, being helmetless is a serious offence.) She played ignorant American, and one of the protesters came up to videotape the incident and argue with the cop.
Here is a picture of the protesters taken from the lofty heights of the Ministry. We could still hear the dim drone of the megaphone from here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment