For nearly two decades, from the 1970s until the 90s, the people of Coromandel, spearheaded by the wonderful Peninsula Watchdog group, militantly fought a whole series of mining transnational corporations (TNCs) that were very keen to dig great big holes in their beautiful part of the country and extract the gold therefrom. Peninsula Watchdog was an inspiration to the rest of the country and, indeed, to people overseas. When CAFCA toured Roger Moody, a British-based world expert on mining TNCs and the struggles against them, through New Zealand in 1990, he was in awe of the Coromandel struggle, about which he’d heard so much. The public meeting that he and I addressed in Waihi was a lifetime highlight for both of us. CAFCA had an excellent working relationship with Peninsula Watchdog throughout its whole life (including bringing two leading figures to Christchurch to speak at our AGM one year). I visited there several times, both as a CAFCA representative and on personal holidays, because it’s an extremely beautiful part of the country and because the Peninsula Watchdog people became good friends of ours.

The campaign ended and the group disbanded when a long sought law was passed (in the latter stages of the 1990-99 National government) that effectively prevented any mining projects in the northern half of the Coromandel Peninsula. This law, of course, did not affect the existing gold mine in the middle of Waihi (which has latterly endured a succession of houses and roads suddenly dropping into the old mine shafts beneath, rendering parts of the town dangerous and uninhabitable. The ever-expanding Waihi mine still features regularly in the OIC decisions featured in every Watchdog – including this one). Nor did it stop the environmentally disastrous Golden Cross Mine, at Karangahake (near Waihi) – the mining TNC which ran that (a runner up in the 1997 Roger Award) has since shot through and closed the mine, for its own reasons, leaving the community and NZ taxpayers to deal with its legacy.

One of the leading figures in Peninsula Watchdog was Jean Bibby, who was its fulltime organiser for years, based in the office in Coromandel (the town). More than once I had the pleasure of staying at the Whangapoua dairy farm of Jean and her husband, Paul (in those days, a dairy farm was a novelty for a visiting Cantabrian. Now, of course, large tracts of Canterbury and other whole areas of previously sheep-only South Island countryside, have converted to dairying). Many’s the time that I suggested that Peninsula Watchdog widen its focus from the potential threat posed by mining TNCs to the actual threat of the forestry TNCs that have been gobbling up Coromandel (along with plenty of other areas), from the late 1980s onwards. I was told that the campaign’s strength was its single-issue focus, and that it worked. I conceded the argument and basically we lost contact with our old friends in Coromandel, as they resumed normal life again after years of nonstop campaigning against mining.

It gives me no great pleasure to see my prediction come true nearly a decade after I was last up there. The forestry TNCs are encroaching more and more into the lives of Coromandel’s people and one of them now threatens the very livelihood of Jean and Paul Bibby’s farm. But they’ve picked a fight with a couple of seasoned veterans of the Coromandel gold wars, who will give as good as they get.

Ernslaw One is owned by the Tiong family of Malaysia. We’ve written extensively about this company before, in Watchdog issues going back a decade; in my 1995 book "Clearcut: Forestry In New Zealand"; and we have featured in mainstream media coverage of it, such as a 1994 TVNZ Frontline programme. It was one of the main beneficiaries of the 1984-90 Labour government’s sale of cutting rights to State forests. In August 1990, Ernslaw One was given permission to buy, for $102 million, the Crown Forest Licences and assets of several forests in both islands. It now owns or leases approximately 70,000 hectares of land in the Coromandel, Manawatu, Hawkes Bay, Otago and Southland. It owns and operates the Conical Hill sawmill and remanufacturing plant in Otago and has developed a Douglas Fir seeding nursery, also in Otago.

They have been reluctant neighbours for more than a decade. But now Ernslaw One has done something that threatens the viability of the Bibbys’ farm and therefore their very livelihood. It has bought, a Whangapoua dairy farm, for the purpose of building a $25-30 million sawmill on the land, to process the 180,000 tonnes of logs being produced per year. This involves the forestry TNC buying a 182 ha dairy farm, while it actually only requires eight to ten ha for the sawmill site. The purchase was subject to Overseas Investment Commission (OIC) approval.

"The proposal raises two issues we are opposed to. Firstly, they will be taking one of the larger dairy farms out of production. This will have an effect on the viability of the milk pickup here in Whangapoua. There are nine dairy farms in our area, which produce enough to warrant truck pickup of our produce. Under the Constitution, Fonterra is able to charge cartage differentials to farmers and decreased milk volumes has been targeted as one instance when this may occur, placing the industry in Whangapoua in jeopardy. In the past we have had to pay cartage differentials and we do not wish to return to those days.

"Secondly, the mill requires only 20 acres of land which can easily be found within the 18,500 acre forest that Ernslaw is leasing so there is absolutely no justification for selling 450 acres of good New Zealand farmland to another country. We believe these two issues are enough grounds for the OIC to refuse the land sale. Another site has been located on industrial land near Whitianga close to their forest and the local workforce. This site is close to existing electricity supplies and our lines company will not have to upgrade the existing power supply. Jim Anderton’s (recent) press release supporting the proposal is unfortunate. We believe that Ernslaw have made very minimal efforts to find a more suitable site and Mr Anderton did not realise the implications of Ernslaw purchasing farmland" (press release, 10/9/02; "Overseas Investment Commission Urged To Reject Unnecessary Sale Of Farmland To Malaysian Forest Company", Jean and Paul Bibby).

Elsewhere in this issue, in the latest (and probably last) article on the Lilybank saga, you will read that CAFCA was unsuccessful in our attempt to find out anything about the submission made to the OIC by a third party (when it approved Lilybank being sold for $1, in 1999). The Chief Ombudsman upheld the OIC’s refusal to release any details of that submission. What is interesting about the Bibby case is that they made a submission to the OIC and happily sent it to us, and anybody else they could think of, so we can actually have a rare look inside the secretive processes of the OIC.

There’s nothing long or complex about Jean and Paul’s submission. "We are not opposed in principle to a ‘state of the art’ sawmill and we are not raising environmental issues in this Submission. We are very opposed to the proposed purchase of a Whangapoua dairy farm for the use of a sawmill because of the negative social and economic effects it will have on our area…The ten dairy farms in Whangapoua, which sustain 15 families, as well as additional seasonal employees, will be negatively affected. Whangapoua is situated approximately 135 kilometres from the nearest (dairy) factory, at Waitoa. Currently we rely on maintaining a sufficient cumulative output of milk to avoid incurring a cartage price differential, which would increase the cost of trucking our product, as has happened in the past.

"We ask the OIC to reject the sale of Whangapoua farmland to Ernslaw One on the grounds that:

"1/ A mill on farmland in the Whangapoua would result in the loss of dairy income from the Whangapoua dairy community. This would result in increased cartage costs, which will make some of our farms uneconomic units.

2/ Ernslaw wishes to purchase a 182 ha dairy farm when only eight ha is needed for the sawmill.

3/ Insufficient effort has been made by Ernslaw to identify sites within the forest they lease.

4/ A mill site within leased forest would not require the sale of New Zealand dairy farmland and OIC approval.

5/ A site within the forest has been identified" (Bibby Properties Ltd submission to OIC, 1/9/02).

The submission was accompanied by a supporting letter from Charlie Pederson, national Vice-President of Federated Farmers. "…Given the isolated nature of the community, Mr Bibby is extremely concerned that the removal of prime dairy land from production may potentially result in reduced service to the remaining suppliers in the area. Dairy farming in the area is reliant on maintaining critical mass in terms of milk supply, which is especially important given the distance from milk processing facilities. If the situation were to arise where a dairy farm in the area was removed from production, the economic viability of a number of the other farms could be put at risk.

"In summary, it should be stressed that Mr Bibby does not oppose the development of the sawmill per se, but considers there may be suitable alternatives that would meet the needs of the forest owners, without adversely affecting the ongoing economic viability of dairy farming in the area. Mr Bibby would like to know to what extent the OIC takes such matters into account when considering applications by foreign companies/persons to purchase land" (letter to OIC, 3/9/02). For its part Ernslaw One denies that it plans to use all of the 182 ha farm. "Our intention is to lease the majority of the land back" (Matthew Hitchings, managing director, Blue Mountain Lumber [the subsidiary of Ernslaw One], Hauraki Herald, 13/9/02; "Complaint lodged over mill proposal").

One other person deserves critical mention here – Jim Anderton. He has fallen from the lofty heights of Deputy Prime Minister, and is the Leader of a party comprised of a mere two MPs. But he is still Minister of Economic Development and, therefore he is in charge of "Jim’s Jobs Machine". He has become highly enamoured of the forestry TNCs as the salvation of rural New Zealand’s unemployment problem. It’s worth remembering that it was only in 1996 that Jim, as Leader of the Alliance, campaigned vigorously against the sale of the central North Island State forests to the very same forestry TNCs with whom he is now so pally. In a letter to Jean and Paul (11/10/02), Anderton says: "The Government is committed to regional development, which we recognise as being important to the economic growth of New Zealand. It is impossible, however, to guarantee that land will remain in the same use. The land in Whangapoua is being sold for its highest value use. Although the region may be losing a dairy farm, it will be gaining a sawmill operation that will benefit the local economy and could establish a long-term industry that will add value to the Coromandel Peninsula’s forestry resource. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you every success with your farming business". This sounds uncomfortably like the old "winners and losers" jargon from the 80s.

Tension between long established farming communities and forestry TNCs muscling into their areas is not unique to the Coromandel. At the other end of the country, in the remote Catlins district of Southland, the relentless onslaught of Japanese TNC, Southland Plantation Forestry Company Ltd, in buying up farms, removing everything from them and planting eucalyptus trees on the land has aroused fierce opposition from local communities who see their very existence threatened. "We hate seeing it destroyed by a multinational company whose people don’t live here and contribute nothing. We’re trying to arrest this before the district is buggered" (Ken Buckingham, farmer, quoted in Listener, 15/9/01; "The last hoedown: As once-thriving country communities turn into social deserts, farmers are challenging the way foreign investment works here", Bruce Ansley). In his analysis of the April 2001 OIC approvals (in Watchdog 98, December 2001), Bill Rosenberg wrote: