Chairperson, Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki

Many of us are old enough to recall "Think Big" and here we go again. 2024 also reminds me of the Muldoon era and of 2010 when the Key government sent Gerry Brownlee out to sell mining in national parks and Schedule 4(of the Crown Minerals Act). They failed to convince the public it was a smart idea but this new Rightwing government has not learned from their attempts.

Capitalist cycles produce these monotonous strategies of declaring the country open to foreign company exploitation to save the economy. Mining, oil drilling, irrigation dams, roads of "national significance" and seabed extraction are on the agenda again despite the climate crisis and the biodiversity collapses.

Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki is facing the next wave of gold fever with nil enthusiasm but with a heartening level of public support. The mining industry is a small part of the economy and even with Shane Jones leading a passionate theatrical love fest towards mining, the numbers and the realities do not add up to either economic salvation or "responsible mining".

From 2017-23 we watched Labour fail to honour the promise made to ban mining on conservation land in the 2017 Speech from the Throne. There was no progress to protect the land apart from this promise which did not inhibit the gold and coal miners around the country. The one action that created some balance was the amendment of the Crown Minerals Act purpose to "manage" rather than promote mining. Now the new Government has promised to reverse that purpose back to "promote".

The issues around mining and the Fast Track are being spun to the public as an economic salvation for the country and a sudden sense of responsibility not to pollute other countries. Mining rare earth minerals is being spun as a green tech solution to climate change. The contradictions are extreme, but the resources of the Crown are fully behind the myths that mining will save our economy and keep people off the dole.

A journalist told me the other day that mining was restricted in this country. They seemed surprised when I challenged this. They had no examples of any restrictions (apart from in national parks and Schedule 4 conservation land) but they mentioned seabed mining. It worries me that journalists have bought the narrative of "restriction" when the seabed miners lost in court, numerous times. They have failed robust scrutiny, so instead of respecting the legal process the Government intends to change the law. That's not ending restriction, in our area that's destroying the right to independent decision making.

Rare Earths A Smokescreen For Coal & Gold

For us in Hauraki the whole rare earth metals push is a smoke screen for the real targets - coal and gold. We have no new permits being applied for to search for rare earths in our area, they are all for gold. As well as Oceana Gold planning a massive expansion under the forest at Wharekirauponga which may be fast tracked, we have new exploration from foreign miners. The most notorious is the Australian Clive Palmer's company Mineralogy.

It has now received permits to start surveying across a large area of the north eastern Te Tara o Te Ika (the Peninsula). A new Canadian company has moved in next to Oceana Gold behind Whangamata, and across the southern Hauraki range to Maratoto. It has called itself Rua Gold (because it is targeting two places, Reefton and Hauraki) so we will be challenging them as well.

Since covid it's been very quiet, but the combination of the new very Rightwing Government introducing the Fast Track Bill and the high global gold prices, has led to a resurgence of protest activity in several parts of the country including Hauraki. On March 16 (2024) we held a rally of more than 100 people at Karangahake protesting against the Fast Track Bill but also the New Talisman mine in the forest park. Tangata whenua reminded us they have been fighting miners polluting the Ohinemuri River beside Karangahake maunga since the 1860s.

Although New Talisman is a small company which mostly mines the share market it has a site it is developing and a gate blocking the public walkway. It might try and Fast Track its right to mine, and even though it is not regionally or nationally significant (the supposed criteria which will be applied to projects applying to use that law) anything is possible. New Talisman has just been suspended from trading on the Australian stock exchange due to some financial accounts' issues, and we can only hope these escalate.

On June 8 (2024) Watchdog organised three busloads of people from our communities to travel to the march in Tamaki Makaurau organised by Greenpeace against the Fast Track Bill. It was a great day for solidarity, marching with 20,000 other people concerned about this draconian law and what it means for places like Hauraki. This law is a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and it undermines public participation in decision making. The Resource Management Act was never a level playing field in the campaign against mining, but now the Government is removing the field itself.

Confronting Shane Jones

A week later Shane Jones and Winston Peters came to Kopu (near Thames) to open a new wharf for aquaculture on the Waihou River, funded by Government under the Provincial Growth Fund. Watchdog did not want to protest the wharf which many of us think is useful, but we had to protest the Fast Track, the mining threats and a Minister who had attacked us for defending the environment. Shane Jones has been adamant that he will promote mining in places like Wharekirauponga and to hell with the risks to endangered species and water. His personal attacks on the opposition to mining are colourful and I was proud to be called "an emerald lizard" in one of his diatribes.

The protest was some distance from the wharf event but Mr Jones made a point of coming over to explain to us why we need mining and Fast Track laws. The 50 people at the protest were not interested in his theories which include - the Government has a mandate to do this (even if it destroys public participation), there will be jobs galore, and we have an open economy, so, apparently, it's fine if transnationals mine and take the profit.

Jones also said that Captain Cook species of wild pigs had more rare frogs in their puku than any impact mining will have on them. Given that the rare frogs we are fighting for are a 200-million-year-old species of thumbnail size sensitive creatures which are hard to find on a good day, I think this is unlikely. Jones seems unaware that the mining industry, and Oceana Gold in particular, are looking at robots replacing miners as soon as practicable, and jobs are vulnerable in this boom-and-bust industry, even without AI replacing workers.

Jones was disappointed when I would not give him my megaphone to address the crowd. We were disappointed that he has so much power and so little interest in the long-term wellbeing of this country and so much love for extractive capitalism. Right now, the Fast Track is still before the House but public protests are leading to mutterings of tweaks by Minister Chris Bishop. We fear the tweaks will be cosmetic but sold to the public as major compromises.

Most Destructive Legislation

After 40 years of campaigning against mining Watchdog has never seen such destructive legislation which excludes so many voices and blatantly advocates for mining. The Labour Party really needs to assure voters that they will dump the Fast Track when re-elected and revoke the consents that have been issued without due processes. Te Pāti Māori has taken extraordinary leadership on the seabed mining issue, working effectively with allies like KASM (Kiwis Against Seabed Mining) and Greenpeace and the Greens have also stood strong against the Fast Track and its implications.

The global appetite for rare earth metals is an opportunity for real clean tech alternatives, not further destruction of the environment, but it's the coal and gold companies who are really jumping on that band wagon. It's clear that whatever the mineral targets, the organising and activism of communities is going to be crucial as we face the companies who want minerals, water, the seabed and problematic development in urban areas as well.

Watchdog is working with CAFT (Communities Against the Fast Track) but whatever the outcome of the Bill, we know we will have to unite on the ground to resist foreign capital destroying our future. As Moana Jackson said: "The new world order is an old world lie". We have been here before but the stakes this time are even higher.

We Can Stop Transnational Plunder

The most bizarre aspect of this latest round of threats from mining is that we can reuse the gold already mined for our needs by mining e-waste, and we should not be ignoring the biodiversity and climate crises which are both huge threats to human survival. Despite the lust for the imaginary profits for this country from mining (with gold paying a 2% royalty to the Crown), there are bigger forces we need to try and mitigate before it's too late. As Watchdog continues to fight, we look forward to the support across the country and to supporting other groups committed to Te Tiriti and environmental justice. We can stop transnational plunder if we are united and strategic.

Watchdog - 166 August 2024