Deep sea mining decision already made, Cook Islands opposition leader says
Photo:
Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority
The Cook Islands' opposition leader believes the government has already decided it wants to pursue deep sea mining despite the science being inconclusive.
Tina Browne has
called for a pause
on "the aggressive promotion of mining" by her government.
However, she said she was fine with exploration and exploitation - the actual mining - if it is deemed environmentally safe.
When asked how this position differed from the government's, she said, "The feeling that we have is that, while we want to tread cautiously and have the data available and the decisions made for safety, the government is promoting it in such a way that it has already determined it is safe."
The Cook Islands is currently exploring the possibility of developing the industry but has not yet begun the actual mining.
The Seabed Minerals Authority (SMA) is the government body in charge of deep sea mining in the Cook Islands.
SMA's knowledge management director John Parionos said the National Environment Service is responsible for managing the process before an environmental project permit is issued.
"This process is clear and legally mandated," Parionos said.
He said it included the provision of a detailed environmental impact statement by the companies. While the authority and the National Environment Service have commissioned a strategic environmental assessment.
"The [strategic environmental assessment's] purpose is to inform policy, not authorize any particular project to proceed to commercial minerals harvesting or other mining," Parionos said.
"The results of the [strategic environmental assessment] thus far are encouraging but show key areas of uncertainty."
Tina Browne
Photo:
Cook Islands News
Browne said she did not want to be driven by the economic benefits of mining.
"I want us to apply a lot of common sense and wisdom to the whole thing and not just be driven by the need to get money," she said.
"We say that we are doing this for the future of our children, the children are saying, 'Well, there's not enough of us at these consultation meetings.
"It's the same old elderly adults who are leaving us soon, we should be the ones to have a say in what we want for our future'."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
NZ Police chief acknowledges impact of criminal deportees on the Pacific
Police Commissioner Richard Chambers, right, at the Fiji Police Force headquarters in Suva. 2 May 2025 Photo: Fiji Police Force New Zealand's police commissioner says he understands the potential impact the country's criminal deportees have on smaller Pacific Island nations. Richard Chambers' comments on Pacific Waves come as the region's police bosses gathered for the annual Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police conference in Waitangi. The meeting, which is closed to media, began on Wednesday. Chambers said a range of issues were on the agenda, including transnational organised crime and the training of police forces. Inspector Riki Whiu, of Northland police, leads, from right, Secretary General of Interpol Valdecy Urquiza, Vanuatu Police Commissioner Kalshem Bongran and Northern Mariana Islands Police Commissioner Anthony Macaranas during the pōwhiri. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf Across the Pacific, the prevalence of methamphetamine and its role in driving social, criminal and health crises have thrust the problem of organised crime into the spotlight. Chambers said New Zealand had offered support to its fellow Pacific nations to combat transnational organised crime, in particular around the narcotics trade. However, the country's own transnational crime advisory group also identified the country's deportation policies as a "significant contributor to the rise of organised crime in the Pacific". In 2022, a research report showed that New Zealand returned 400 criminal deportees to Pacific nations between 2013 and 2018. The report from the Lowy Institute also said criminal deportees from New Zealand, as well as Australia and the US, were a significant contributor to transnational crime in the Pacific. Te Waaka Popata-Henare, of the Treaty Grounds cultural group Te Pito Whenua, leads the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police to Te Whare Rūnanga for a formal welcome. Photo: RNZ / Peter de Graaf When Chambers was asked about the issue and whether New Zealand's criminal deportation policy undermined work against organised crime across the region, he said it had not been raised with him directly. "The criminal networks that we are dealing with, in particular those such as the cartels out of South America, the CJNG [cartels] and Sinaloa cartels, who really do control a lot of the cocaine and also methamphetamine trades, also parts of Asia with the Triads," Chambers said. "I know that the Pacific commissioners that I work with are very, very focused on what we can do to combat and disrupt a lot of that activity at source, in both Asia and South America. So that's where our focus has been, and that's what the commissioners have been asking me for in terms of support." He said he understood the difficulties law enforcement in Pacific nations faced regarding criminal deportees, as New Zealand faced similar challenges under Australia's deportation policy. In New Zealand, the country's returned nationals from Australia are known as 501 deportations, named after the section of the Australian Migration Act which permits their deportation due to criminal convictions. These individuals have often spent the majority of their lives in Australia and have no family or ties to New Zealand but are forced to return due to Australia's immigration laws. New Zealand's authorities have tracked how these deportees - who number in the hundreds - have contributed significantly to the country's increasingly sophisticated and established organised crime networks over the past decade. Chambers said that because police dealt with the real impacts of Australia's 501 law, he could relate to what his Pacific counterparts faced. "I understand from the New Zealand perspective [which is] the impact that New Zealand nationals returning to our country have on New Zealand, and the reality is, they're offending, they're re-offending. "I suspect it's no different from our Pacific colleagues in their own countries. And it may be something that we can talk about." This week's conference was scheduled to finish on Friday. Speakers due to appear included Interpol secretary-general Valdecy Urquiza and Pacific Islands Forum secretary-general Baron Waqa.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
'It raises the IQ of both countries': How Muldoon stole a joke that was already stolen
Context - Few political one-liners are as enduring in New Zealand folklore as Sir Robert Muldoon's crack about the brain drain. Asked about Kiwis moving to Australia in the late 1970s, Muldoon famously replied that the migrants "raised the IQ of both countries". Trans-Tasman migration was surging at the time, with 103,000 New Zealanders moving permanently to Australia between 1976 and 1982. The joke has been repeated in speeches, pub banter, and the occasional barbecue argument for decades. But here's the punchline: Muldoon didn't write it - he pinched it from political cartoonist and columnist Tom Scott. However, Scott says he wasn't bothered. "I'd already stolen it," he admitted. "I couldn't get too pious". Sir Robert Muldoon served as the 31st prime minister of New Zealand. Photo: Stuff Speaking to Corin Dann in RNZ's new podcast Context , which looks at the history behind today's headlines, Tom Scott said he took the gag from Irish writer Brendan Behan. In his play The Quare Fellow Behan wrote the same thing about Irish people migrating to America. "I modified it without attribution," Scott explained. "I didn't give Brendan the credit. I took it for myself. I said, 'When Kiwis go to Australia, it raises the IQ of both countries.' And I put it in The Listener column." It was the perfect joke for the moment. The Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, introduced in 1973, had made it easy for Kiwis to live and work in Australia without visas. When Australia's economy surged while New Zealand's sputtered, thousands left for greener pastures. RNZ's new podcast Context looks at the history behind today's headlines. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi (photo), Robert Whitaker (design) Ten days after Scott's column ran, Muldoon dropped the line as if it were his own. Scott said he was only too pleased to see Muldoon borrowing from his (and Brendan Behan's) work given that, at the time, he was banned from Muldoon's press conferences. "It was doubly rewarding," Scott said, "to be a banned person and a quoted person. It was quite nice." Follow and listen to Context on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. David Lange served as the 32nd prime minister of New Zealand. Photo: Merv Griffiths. Dominion Post (Newspaper): Photographic negatives and prints of the Evening Post and Dominion newspapers. Ref: EP/1986/3948/17-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Muldoon wasn't the only prime minister to steal Tom Scott's lines. "[David] Lange stole a lot of mine as well," Scott recalled. "In his farewell valedictory to Parliament, he said, 'Winston Peters can't be here tonight, he's been unavoidably detained by a full-length mirror.' And that was my line too. So, you know, I've had Muldoon and Lange both stealing my lines. It's quite flattering, really." Over the years, the "IQ" remark has taken on a life of its own. Many quote it without knowing its real author, assuming it sprang fully formed from the PM's famously sharp tongue. For more on the fascinating historical story of the 'Brain Drain' - including fears of farm workers fleeing for the goldfields, and anxieties over scientific migration in the 1960s - check out RNZ's new podcast Context , hosted by Corin Dann and Guyon Espiner, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
NZ facing toughest national security environment of recent times
Director-general of security Andrew Hampton. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins The intelligence service warns threats to national security need to be taken much more seriously than they currently are. The Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) has released its third annual Security Threat Environment report, containing its assessments of violent extremism , foreign interference , and espionage in New Zealand. The report said New Zealand was facing the most challenging national security environment of recent times, with foreign interference, espionage, and online radicalisation all highlighted as threats. Much of the report contained similar analysis and threats to the two previously released reports, though the NZSIS noted further deterioration since last year's report. This was largely driven by less stable relationships between states, and increasing levels of polarisation and grievance, the agency said. Commenting on the report, director-general of security Andrew Hampton said the deteriorating environment had a direct impact on safety and security. "Increasing levels of polarisation and grievance are driving support for violent extremist ideologies and foreign states are more willing to target New Zealand organisations and communities in order to achieve their aims," he said. "We are seeing active cases of young and vulnerable people being radicalised online, there are foreign states seeking to interfere with our democratic rights, and there is almost certainly undetected espionage activity targeting valuable intellectual property crucial to our future prosperity." The "downward trajectory" of relationships between foreign states becoming less stable and less predictable was continuing. It meant some were wanting to gain more influence, power, and strategic advantage. The relationship between the United States and China was cited, as well as Russia's willingness to assert its influence in Europe. The conflict in the Middle East would also have an enduring impact. The report highlighted the strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific, saying China had demonstrated a "willingness and capability" to undertake intelligence activity targeting New Zealand's national interests, in bids to extend and embed influence across the region. The NZSIS said several states were responsible for foreign interference activities, including transnational repression designed to target diaspora communities. Foreign states had also attempted to exploit people inside the public and private sectors to gain influence. A Pacific Regional and National Security Conference panel on transnational crime and national security last month. Photo: Facebook / Pacific Security College Over the last eighteen monthths, the NZSIS had seen an increase in foreign interference actors visiting New Zealand. The report said these foreign delegations were tasked with building relationships with specific parts of society, often by seeking an invitation from a New Zealand organisation to host them. "On the surface, few organisations will sense any issue but many will not know the delegation's link to foreign interference entities. Members of these delegations will conceal these links so our communities and organisations are unable to assess the risk involved in the engagement," the report said. They have also arranged travel for representatives of New Zealand organisations to build long-term influence. The trips would often include business deals or photo-ops with foreign officials, which were then used by the foreign state to promote a perception of close ties and political support from influential New Zealanders. "This can have an alienating effect on repressed communities back in New Zealand experiencing transnational repression activity from the foreign state." The NZSIS observed diaspora groups were being targeted, with foreign interference groups seeking to co-opt or replace leaders and then sideline anyone deemed to be a challenge to the state's agenda. Certain religions, ethnicities, rainbow communities, and pro-democracy movements were also targeted. While foreign states often flagged legitimate violent extremist concerns with the NZSIS, some states were accusing New Zealand-based groups of being extremists or terrorists when they were not. "The NZSIS is extremely cautious about this deliberate labelling tactic, as it is used to stigmatise particular groups and to justify repressive activity against them." While the report said China was not the only foreign state carrying out activity of concern, it would not specifically name those other foreign states. A Chinese warship operates north east of Australia in February. Photo: AFP / Australian Defence Force The assessement said the most plausible violent extremist scenario remained a lone actor who had been radicalised online. While no one ideology stood out to the service as presenting a greater threat than any other, grievances and polarising issues online were driving support for those ideologies. Young and more vulnerable people were seen as being particularly at risk of becoming radicalised, with ease of access being a key contributor to the cases brought to NZSIS' attention. "Individuals who hold mixed, unstable or unclear ideologies are especially vulnerable to being radicalised online. The NZSIS has identified a number of people who appear to explore a range of violent extremist beliefs online and adopt certain aspects to suit their grievance," the report said. Violent extremist content was easy to find, and frequently shared in anonymous online networks hosting groups contributing to the radicalisation of people both in New Zealand and around the world. "What might have previously been considered societal risks associated with internet safety, now have the potential to pose an ongoing risk to New Zealand's national security." Artificial intelligence had emerged as a way of facilitating violent extremism and state-sponsored interference activities. "AI is making harmful propaganda appear more authentic and allows it to be spread at scale and speed," the report said. "The ease of access to AI will be assisting violent extremists to research and plan attacks and is reducing barriers that previously made it difficult to access information about more advanced capabilities or weapons." Five Eyes intelligence alliance leaders at a technology summit in California, in 2023. Photo: supplied Throughout the report, the NZSIS provided case studies and security advice, with the agency warning it could not automatically pick up on all concerning activities. In mitigating foreign interference, it suggested steps such as researching someone online before agreeing to meet them, or determining whether their interest had become suspicious or persistent. Considering the opportunities and risks of hosting a foreign delegation was also suggested. "We are not all-seeing and all-knowing, and in a democratic society like ours nor should we be. In many cases the public will notice a threat before we do," Hampton said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
