Four ocean advocates have been sentenced in court in Wellington today, after locking down the Wellington headquarters of the mining industry lobbying firm Straterra (since renamed the New Zealand Minerals Council) in September 2024.
They were found guilty of trespass, convicted and discharged.
Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director Niamh OโFlynn, who was one of the activists, says:
โIโm proud to wear this conviction. We never take such action lightly but if standing up for the oceans is a crime then thatโs what we have to do. If business as usual isnโt going to stop the people who most want to profit from the destruction of our environment, then this is the kind of action that we have to take.
โThe NZ Minerals Council lobbied the Luxon government behind the scenes on behalf of Australian-owned wannabe seabed mining company Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR), and we wanted to disrupt that influence,โ OโFlynn continued.
โThe Luxon governmentโs Fast Track process opened up the South Taranaki Bight for seabed mining by enabling TTR and its Australian owners, Manuka Resources, to revive its zombie seabed mining plans. This was after being turned down repeatedly , even by the Supreme Court, because they were unable to alleviate concerns that seabed mining would cause harm to marine life.โ
โTTR pulled out of the Environmental Protection Authority hearings last year andย is banking on the Luxon governmentโs Fast Track Process. But even here TTR is failing to convince the Fast Track Panel of their credibility. A new report to the panel describes TTRโs application as containingย โoutdated information, internal inconsistencies and unproven technologyโ.
Activist Kate Paris, of Pฤtea says: โTaranaki communities โ including iwi, environmentalists, fisher people, boaties and surfers are united in our opposition to seabed mining. We will continue to take action until we know Tangaroa is protected.โ
Trans-Tasman Resources is planning to extract 50 million tonnes of iron sand from the South Taranaki Bight every year for decades and dump 45 million tonnes a year back into the ocean.
Seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight would damage rich ecosystems and threaten precious marine life such as the pygmy blue whale, Mฤui and Hectorโs dolphins and kororฤ.
โThe opposition to seabed mining is immense and people will continue to stand up and fight against Trans-Tasman Resourcesโ seabed mining project. Just as thousands of New Zealanders united to fend off international oil companies through unrelenting peaceful protest and iwi-led opposition, we will make sure seabed mining never starts in Aotearoa,โ said OโFlynn.