Iwi must deal with us 'whether they want us or not'

RNZ News

4 hours ago

A seabed mining protest held earlier in June.
Photo:
RNZ / Emma Andrews
The head of a company that wants to mine millions of tonnes of ironsands from the seabed off the Taranaki coast says local iwi - which unanimously oppose the project - must engage with Trans-Tasman Resources "whether they want us or not", when it gets its consents.
TTR has approval to vacuum up 50 million tonnes of sand annually from the South Taranaki seabed for 35 years to extract iron, vanadium and titanium, but the company still needs consent to discharge 45 million tonnes of unwanted sediment a year back into the shallow waters.
The company has previously been thwarted through legal challenges right up to the Supreme Court and is currently going through the fast-track consenting process. TTR said it can mine the seabed environmentally safely, and its project would significantly boost the national and regional economies.
Managing director Alan Eggers outlined the virtues of the project to councillors and members of the public - many of whom opposed it - for about an hour at a workshop last week.
At the conclusion of his presentation, councillor Bryan Vickery asked Eggers why - despite his compelling case - did all eight Taranaki iwi oppose the project, and why was there a disconnect between TTR and iwi.
In May, Ngā Iwi o Taranaki released a statement on behalf of the eight Post Settlement Governance Entity iwi of Taranaki, voicing their support for South Taranaki iwi in their opposition to seabed mining off the coast of Pātea.
"Our iwi stand alongside our southern iwi to support them and amplify their concerns about seabed mining in their takiwā," said Ngā Iwi o Taranaki pouwhakahaere Wharehoka Wano. "We encourage all iwi to support our South Taranaki whānau in their deep opposition to TTR and seabed mining."
Eggers told the workshop TTR had documented its interactions with iwi and they were extensive.
"We're very disappointed at the lack of engagement that they have given us. They haven't engaged, they've refused to engage with us.
"We would love to engage with them and, let me say this, we are going to be working with South Taranaki iwi when we get our consent, whether they like want us or not.
"We're going to want them on board, and were going to want them to actually do a lot of this marine monitoring and research."
After the meeting, Eggers told RNZ that iwi previously wanted to invest in the project.
"We had a quite good relationship with South Taranaki iwi to start with and they were quite keen, in fact, to join us as perhaps an equity partner in the project, invest in the project. We'd welcomed that."
Protect Our Moana group member and Parihaka uri Tihikura Hohaia said he didn't know who Eggers was talking about, when he said TTR had consulted with iwi.
"He certainly hasn't come to consult with any of us grassroots whanau, hapū that are keeping our home fires burning on our marae... not at all, I can tell you that right now."
Hohaia didn't hear anything in Eggers' presentation that made him think the project could go ahead in an environmentally safe way.
"I don't believe it," he said. "It mustn't go ahead.
"If it goes ahead, it's going to condemn our already impoverished, trampled uri to generations of protest."
During his presentation, Eggers spoke to economic benefits and environmental credentials of TTR's project, while councillors and the public gallery maintained a steely silence.
He pointed to the 3.2 billion tonne resource TTR had discovered in the South Taranaki Bight, saying it could generate export revenues of $1 billion a year, making it New Zealand's 11th or 12th largest exporter.
The project would create about 1320 jobs nationally, and generate $190 million in government royalties and taxes per annum, Eggers said.
Taranaki would benefit significantly.
New Plymouth would be the operational headquarters, and Hāwera a training and logistics base. TTR would directly employ 305 people in Taranaki - 270 operational staff and 35 in administrative support.
Eggers said 1125 jobs would be generated in the region in logistics, supplies, services and maritime operations. Port Taranaki and Whanganui Port would be upgraded, and TRR would spend $250 million annually in Taranaki.
He brushed off concerns about the project disturbing marine mammals and rocky reefs, arguing - with supporting evidence - that there were no reefs in the project area and visits by blue whales anywhere near the mining site were extremely rare.
Concerns about the plume created by dredging the seafloor were also dismissed, Eggers arguing that waters near the site would be no more turbid than during a stormy day and reefs would not be smothered.
At the conclusion of his presentation, Eggers took about half a dozen questions from councillors, before Mayor Neil Holdom drew the meeting to a close.
Eggers thought the meeting went well.
"Well, I was pleased to have been given the opportunity, and hopefully I did give them some facts and figures around the project, and its benefits and effects."
Hohaia remained unconvinced.
"It felt very violent against a backdrop of a cultural upbringing in an area of land loss and so the pure focus on economics for us, the people in the room, sitting in the gallery, it seemed totally bereft of any wairua, of any spirit at all."
He said proud opponents of the project sat through the address "with dignity".
"These kinds of presentation, as you'd expect, are all about money, all about the supposed benefits through that perspective alone. We've seen enough environmental degradation, we've seen enough cultural degradation here in Taranaki to know better than to be lured by any more sliver coins."
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