Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki, a group with a 40-year history of defending the Hauraki/Coromandel from mining is calling for the Prime Minister to rein in the Minister of Resources Shane Jones whose recent statements they describe as a declaration of war on nature.
“In his statement in the House on December 12 Shane Jones went full Trump and declared war on conservation land, biodiversity, and climate science. His flippant and uniformed comments about the large scale gold mine proposal on conservation lands at Wharekirauponga are disturbing, but what’s worse he is threatening to remove public, local body and DOC participation in mining consent decision making, “says Catherine Delahunty Chair of Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki,
“We are calling on the Prime Minister to take control of his Minister who represents a minor Party and make it clear that the National led Government are not proposing widespread environmental vandalism, the undoing of many years of hard work to protect the natural world and to ensure democratic participation in decision making. Will Chris Luxon restore the Government’s reputation, or will he let Shane Jones wreak havoc?”
Ms Delahunty said that public support for protecting our forests, water, the climate and native species is huge and there will be strong push back if this Government continues down this bizarre track.
“In 2010, 40, 000 people marched down Queen St and told the National Government they could not mine conservation lands, forcing a back down. Mr Luxon needs to take note that the public of this country think taonga species, forests and mountains must be protected. In this region the economy relies on the environment not on extracting gold which is above ground in large supplies, mainly in bank vaults. We value this place, and we will resist all attempts to damage it and we know we are not alone”
