Nothing manages to sum up the impotency of the Greens in power quite like any decision by the Ministry captured Minister Sage or this fiasco over mining…
Fourteen new mines on conservation land
In the past two years, more mining applications have been approved on conservation land than in the two years before the 2017 announcement there would be no new mines on conservation land.
Twenty-one mining applications have been approved on conservation land since Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s speech promising there would be no more.
The delay in legislation to back up the commitment has meant that for the past two years it’s been business as usual, and mining applications have continued to be processed. As one conservationist puts it: “Rome continues to burn” while the promise has floundered.
Between November 2017 and the end of January, 21 mining applications have been approved.
Fourteen of those are mining approvals on land that hasn’t been mined before. The remaining seven applications approved were issued for land that had previously been mined or were re-issues of previously approved mining access permissions that had lapsed.
In the two years prior to the announcement, 19 mining applications were approved.
Fourteen of the approved mining applications were for areas of public conservation land that hasn’t previously been mined. Half of these were on the West Coast.
The largest is just over 20 hectares and the smallest 0.65 hectares. Half of the 14 West Coast approvals were for alluvial mining, the others for suction dredging. Alluvial mining – like in the video below (of stewardship land in Mikonui Valley) – can destroy large areas of habitat.
…if the Greens had any fight in them, they would have forced this through so that we didn’t have this wild west situation but their internal tacticians are non-existent and they shrug when challenged on why they’ve floundered here.
I believe 75% of the Greens problem is a lack of talented staff running their tactics behind the scenes.
It’s a reminder of the policy impotency of the Greens and I fear highlights their inability to wield power for real change.
Even if the Greens get returned for the 2020 election (something that is still a moot point) they don’t look like they have the imagination to force anything meaningful on the climate crisis.
Exactly! Somehow politicians can urgently pass bad laws in NZ under urgency (Canterbury earthquake removing democracy under Key, Gun laws the that mean police can search legal gun owners without a warrant but not illegal gun owners, (not only is that a breach of rights to not get a warrant first to search a property, but it is giving rise for better conditions to justify illegal gun ownership in NZ, COL).
Sadly under COL the really important environmental laws are more marketing than substance and certainly not urgently sought.
I share the frustration with many commentators, of the Greens getting side tracked on their own issues of depression/health issues/identity issues/sexuality while failing to do anything for voters that they were voted in for, but they are still better than Natz, who would have not only consented more mining, but probably given the conservation land away for free to their mates (political donation to follow) like the state houses.
I would never vote Green but was not unhappy to see they had a chance to prove themselves at the last election. I understand why they went with Labour but once NZF got in on the act they should have realized they would be second fiddle as Jacinda would never stand up to Peters mob. The fact she has not been tougher on Jones is prove of that. Sage is stand out usless and out of her depth. September is a long way off and I know little about the type who would vote Green but I would be surprised if they are happy with the small amount achieved so far for the enviroment
In need of some Herbal Ignite, I suppose?!
To all Green MPs:
Some of your voters are calling.
You can hear them here
And the Greens are not alone.
This is for their partners in eco-crime
The streamlined sales of thousands of acres of Aotearoa, including of ‘sensitive land’, to overseas buyers is even more disturbing to me than the mining permits. This should not be happening! I don’t understand how they even have a legal right to sell off large areas of the land itself – this is Aotearoa, this is our home, this is our children’s heritage. How can anyone appropriate the right to sell it to overseas entities? It’s just wrong! (Leasing is one thing. Selling, should not be happening.)
This dated 4th Nov 2019:
Over the past year, the Overseas Investment Office has signed off 27 special forestry consents – all under the streamlined consent pathway for investment in New Zealand forests introduced last October.
The consents reflected total consented area of 73,200 hectares, of which one deal – the sale of 17 properties under Hikurangi Forest Farms to New Forests – accounted for 41,300ha. A total of 58,900ha was existing forestry land, with around 14,300ha involving farm-to-forestry investment, the OIO said.
There were nine forestry-related consents in September, including the acquisition of a combined 1663ha at Hillfort Forest in Wyndham and Wether Hills Forest in Lumsden. The applicant – Matariki Forests – is majority owned by US and British interests.
The most expensive deal was from China Forestry Group NZ, which is thought to have paid $27.8million for an interest in 926ha at Highfield, Kai Iwi and Kirikopuni Forests in the North Island.
Minister of Land Information Eugenie Sage and the Associate Minister of Finance also approved the first pre-approval under a special forestry test last month – granted to Japanese-controlled Pan Pac Forest Products.
The “standing consent” effectively gives Pan Pac – which owns lumber processing yards at Whirinaki in Hawke’s Bay and Milburn in Otago – the option to make 25 transactions representing up to 20,000ha of sensitive land over the next three years, without reapplying. Full article here
And then there are the water sales. According to this Scoop article, not only were the consents and expansions given, in the face of considerable local opposition, but the govt of the time (2015) “secretly funded the water bottling companies” !!
This from April last year:
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax payer money to fund two water bottling companies but has refused to release the names or locations of the companies involved or what exactly the money was given to them for. It has confirmed one company is foreign owned.
Documents obtained by Aotearoa Water Action (AWA) under the Official Information Act also reveal that NZTE invited water bottling company Nongfu to visit New Zealand in April 2015. The company is seeking to significantly expand the existing Otakiri Spring bottling plant in the Bay of Plenty with strong public opposition. Documents out of Minister Parker’s Office state that Nongfu Spring’s project with Otakiri Spring is in the NZTE investment pipeline as a ‘significant project’. Govt Secretly Funded Water Bottling Companies
In December last year the appeals by iwi and residents were dismissed and the Nong Fu expansion was given the go-ahead. Appeals against Chinese water bottling plant dismissed
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