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Scoop
44 minutes ago
- Politics
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Seabed Mine Fears Ignite Coast Towns On Ocean Day
Article – Craig Ashworth – Local Democracy Reporting A match lit six weeks ago in punak has ignited fires the length of the North Island with seabed mining opponents taking to the coast on World Ocean Day. A match lit six weeks ago in the coastal Taranaki town of Ōpunakē has ignited fires the length of the North Island – and far across the Pacific – with seabed mining opponents taking to the coast on World Ocean Day. South Taranaki's 15-year fight against an Australian mining bid was picked up by more than 200 surfers, stand-up paddleboarders, body boarders, waka ama crew and kayakers at eight spots along the coast between Wellington to Auckland on Sunday. As they paddled-out from Island Bay, Whanganui, Pātea, Pungarehu, New Plymouth, Raglan, Port Waikato and Muriwai hundreds more rallied on shore, with organisers saying strong turnouts in New Plymouth and Raglan took total numbers over 1200. Four-thousand kilometres away supporters in Tāhiti also hit the waves, they said. Fiona Young of Protect Our Moana Taranaki said coastal communities jumped on board after the first paddle-out at Ōpunakē in April. 'It's important being connected together for this, because if given the greenlight here it would set a very dangerous precedent for all the rest of our coast and the Pacific.' 'It's a new experimental extractive industry that doesn't belong in our oceans.' Trans-Tasman Resources (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 – 160,000 tonnes daily of a recognised pollutant. After a decade failing to win discharge consent right through to the Supreme Court, Trans-Tasman last year quit the latest environment hearing to seek consent via the new Fast-track Approvals Act. Many locals fear sediment would smother reefs and stunt marine photosynthesis by filtering sunlight. TTR's executive chairman Alan Eggers said the discharge wouldn't bother the marine ecology. 'De-ored sands will be returned immediately to the seafloor in a controlled process to minimise the generation of suspended sediment … the plume generated is localised,' said Eggers, who's also executive director of TTR's new owners, Australia miner Manuka Resources. The mining ship would work as close as 22 kilometres off Pātea. Saturday's cold snap cloaked Taranaki Maunga with winter's first heavy snowfall but, after dawn karakia, 20 surfers shrugged off the chill at Pātea Beach and formed Sunday's first circle on the water. Among them was Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. As a Ngāti Ruanui leader she fought the miners for a decade before entering Parliament. Ngarewa-Packer said World Ocean Day helped highlight that the proposed mine was an untested precedent, here and internationally. 'Seabed mining leaves behind the sludge, or the mud. Imagine 45 million tons of sludge … a lot of our magic reef life and our marine life will be absolutely annihilated.' Sand extraction is common but doesn't involve dumping most of what's taken back into the environment, opponents say. Among the 100 supporters on Pātea's beach and dunes was onshore oil driller Hayden Fowler. Despite working in an extractive industry, Fowler brought his teenage daughter Amelia to Pātea to oppose the marine mine. 'I just don't think it's the right thing to be doing.' 'A lot of people don't actually understand what will take place if it happens … so it's probably a little bit misunderstood as to how bad it could be.' Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui kaiwhakahaere Rachel Arnott said TTR kept losing in court because judges found environmental safety evidence unconvincing 'TTR had nothing and in the Fast-track application we still haven't seen any sign that they've adapted to the courts' demands for proof – nothing fresh in terms of evidence.' On Sunday afternoon 500 gathered at New Plymouth's Autere, or East End Beach, to cheer more than 130 taking to the waves. Surfer Fiona Gordon said she was there to celebrate the ocean. 'The beautiful things that it brings to our lives and the risks that are posed when we start interfering with that, in ways we don't fully understand.' Many travelled from Pātea to join the Ngāmotu event including Bruce Boyd, head of community underwater science researchers Project Reef. 'I dive off Pātea, that's my playground, and I don't want to see what's there changed in any way, shape, or form. Especially not covered by that sludge.' TTR expects to earn US$312 million a year before tax, giving shareholders a near 40 percent rate of return on investment of US$602 million. The company promises an economic boost in Taranaki and Whanganui, creating over 1350 New Zealand jobs and becoming one of the country's top exporters. Opponents believe the financial benefits will land with mostly-foreign shareholders.
Scoop
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Free Talk Brings Minor Accord On Taranaki Water Pollution
Article – Craig Ashworth – Local Democracy Reporting Relaxing the rules to allow free-flowing discussion has brought rare agreement on Taranaki Regional Councils biggest headache dairy farm effluent polluting streams and rivers. Pouring treated cow pooh into freshwater is already outlawed … Relaxing the rules to allow free-flowing discussion has brought rare agreement on Taranaki Regional Council's biggest headache – dairy farm effluent polluting streams and rivers. Pouring treated cow pooh into freshwater is already outlawed in other key dairying regions – Waikato, Manawatu, Southland and Otago. Canterbury allows it but has zero active consents. In Taranaki 277 farms still have consent to discharge effluent to waterways. That's a fifth of Taranaki's dairy farms, and they're scattered across the entire region. The local herd stands at 450,000 suggesting effluent from some 90,000 cows can flow into streams and rivers after milking – although half those farms also have permission to discharge to land. The council's powerful Policy and Planning Committee is deciding how quickly farmers must stop polluting freshwater when their resource consents expire. Farmer-lobby committee members mostly want a grace period for those facing looming expiry of consents, or where geographical or financial challenges make land discharge difficult. Māori members want an immediately halt to tūtae flowing into awa and downstream to the moana, once consents expire. The committee suspended standing orders at its meeting last week so people could speak more than once. Rather than trying to win each debate with their sole speech, committee members instead had a more free-flowing discussion that led to unanimous consensus. All agreed to pause the pollution decision so staff could bring more facts on problem farms to the next meeting in six weeks. They hope the extra information will help the committee's regional councillors, district councillor appointees, waka representatives, and Federated Farmers local president to agree on final deadlines. New committee chair Bonita Bigham said free and frank discussion saw strongly-held views clearly articulated. 'To put those views on the table while also considering the perspectives of others, and not having to retrench back to a firm position to vote, I think is a really healthy way forward.' Kurahaupō waka representative Tuhi-Ao Bailey pointed out farmers use public waterways for private business benefit. She said Te Mana o te Wai priorities require that commercial needs come third – after the needs of the environment and of communities. 'Mana whenua are sick and tired of waiting for this to end. We've been debating this for years, decades.' For Aotea waka, Peter Moeahu said the focus was environmental improvement, not the business interests of a minority of farmers who'd chosen to take as long as possible to change. 'The more we delay, the more we defer, the more we take our eye off the environmental ball – then we are not doing justice to our communities as a whole.' Tokomaru's Mitchell Ritai completed the unanimous Māori stand against extending consents, congratulating the 80 percent of famers whose work set a benchmark for laggards. Farmer-lobby councillors differed on how long and lenient any consent extensions ought to be. Councillor Donna Cram wanted to wait for Massey University research findings on whether slightly steeper slopes can cope with cowshed waste, potentially meaning more land is available for discharge. For example, high on the ring plain around Taranaki Maunga massive rainfall soaks the ground then drains into multiple fast-running streams, leaving paddocks often unable to absorb waste. 'We should give farmers a chance to get this research because it could save them considerable money,' she said. 'We're talking five or six hundred thousand dollars for some of these systems – it's not chicken feed.' Poultry shed and piggery systems also discharge to Taranaki waterways, but they're a tiny minority compared to the hundreds of dairy farms. Veteran councillor Donald McIntyre was fed up with fellow farmers dragging their heels and said consents shouldn't be extended. 'They should just phase-out now as they come to the end of their [consents],' he said. 'They have had plenty of warning.' Staff warned that a strict pollution deadline would expose a council unable to handle the surge of consent applications. The rush might also inflate the market for building costly discharge-to-land systems, they advised. Bigham is also TRC's first elected Māori constituency councillor. She chaired what she afterwards described as a more natural debate, with similar benefits to the fluidity of wānanga discussion. 'The statements of position, the discussion around why, the opportunity for added information; the opportunity for reassessment of those positions – or clarification of how further work may enable us to make better decisions.' 'That all came up, that was all free-flowing, all open.' 'It left me really heartened that people were able to see the benefits of having a discussion like that and move forward collectively, even if at the end of the day they may still hold the same positions.'
Scoop
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Embolden Your Councils: Seabed Mining Critics Call On Voters
Article – Craig Ashworth – Local Democracy Reporting Protect Our Moana Taranaki co-leader Fiona Young highlighted a petition calling for councils and councillors across Taranaki, Whanganui and Manawatu to oppose Trans-Tasmans plans. A new group opposing South Taranaki seabed mining wants voters to use local elections to embolden councillors against would-be miners. Around 300 people met at Ōpunakē Beach on the weekend as Protect Our Moana Taranaki swung the focus of seabed mining opposition 70 kilometres along the coast, following years of protest at Pātea. Surfboards spelled-out 'no seabed mining' on the black sand before more than 120 surfers paddled out to link up in a circle on Saturday morning. Trans-Tasman Resources has approval to vacuum up 50 million tonnes of the South Taranaki seabed every year for 35 years to extract iron, vanadium and titanium. But the company still needs consent to discharge 45 million tonnes of unwanted sediment back into the shallow waters off Pātea each year – 160,000 tonnes daily of a recognised pollutant. After a decade failing to win a discharge consent through the courts, Trans-Tasman a year ago quit the latest environment hearing, to seek instead permission under the pro-development Fast-track Approvals Act. Protect Our Moana Taranaki co-leader Fiona Young highlighted a petition calling for councils and councillors across Taranaki, Whanganui and Manawatu to oppose Trans-Tasman's plans. 'This being a local election year, it's a very important time to bring this message to the forefront and let people know what you care about.' Young hoped the petition would help bring a collective voice for Taranaki-Whanganui-Manawatu, 'to embolden our councils to step up and oppose seabed mining.' Opponents fear the mine's sediment would smother reefs and cut sunlight levels, stunting marine photosynthesis. Alan Eggers is executive chairman of Trans-Tasman Resources and executive director of the company's new owners, Australian gold and silver miners Manuka Resources. He said the mining ship's discharge would be harmless. 'De-ored sands will be returned immediately to the seafloor in a controlled process to minimise the generation of suspended sediment in the water (a plume)… the plume generated is localised.' Eggers said high sediment concentrations wouldn't bother the local marine ecology. 'The area is very exposed with high energy, turbid sea, subject to frequent disturbances from current, wave, tidal, storm events and flooded river inputs that generate high suspended sediment concentrations.' Local Marilyn Phillips said she didn't trust such reassurances 'There's absolutely no guarantees.' 'We're keen swimmers and fishermen and we really don't want to see our coast destroyed and our ocean destroyed,' she said. Her scuba-diving husband has 'always talked about what's under the water… it's teaming with life.' 'Once it's gone, it's gone, you don't get it back. It's really alarming.' Jeremey Wheeler also doubted the miners' safety claims. 'They seem quite empty in what they're saying. Cheap, cheap statements.' 'The whole thing's pretty terrible. The way it's going to impact on the reefs and that, with the constant flow of debris from this mining.' Teenaged Eleni Wheeler found it 'quite scary'. 'Knowing our moana and the life around it and what it does for our Earth – how it affects people.' Kiwi's Against Seabed Mining's former chair Phil McCabe said there's similar opposition across Taranaki and Whanganui. 'We're coastal people, we have relationship, we have a love for the marine environment.' McCabe said the shallow waters of the Pātea Shoals extend further than anywhere else on New Zealand's coastline creating a 'unique and extraordinary' place. South Taranaki had the world's greatest diversity of ocean mammals – equalled only by a small area off Argentina, he said. 'More different types of marine mammals exist in or transit through the South Taranaki Bight than any other ocean space on the planet.' Manuka Resources expects to earn US$312 million a year before tax, giving shareholders a near 40 percent rate of return on investment of US$602 million. The company has promised a huge economic boost in Taranaki and Whanganui, creating 1350 jobs across New Zealand and becoming one of the country's top export earners. Last June, South Taranaki District Council called for a ban on seabed mining, telling a parliamentary inquiry any economic benefits wouldn't outweigh 'environmental vandalism'. In December, neighbouring Whanganui District Council also voted to oppose what Councillor Charlotte Melser called the 'boom and bust industry, one that leaves devastation behind it.' Visiting Green MP Teanau Tuiono said coastal communities know and feel the wairua and mauri of their oceans. 'When I got here, I could really feel the aroha of the people for this place, the deep connections that people have, the multiple different connections. It's clearly obvious.' Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was fighting Trans-Tasman Resources long before she became MP for Te Tai Hauāuru. 'We've always been told how to do rāhui, how to keep things and bring them back – but we've never been taught by our tūpuna how to bring a dead ocean back to life. 'Obviously we'll go out and protest on boats and do what we have to do to interfere with it.' 'But the reality is once the damage starts, how do you stop a 35-year permit?'
Scoop
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Talanoa Talks Of Pāsifika Futures At Art Show
Article – Craig Ashworth – Local Democracy Reporting A Talanoa an in-depth conversation will run for three days at the districts Govett-Brewster Art Gallery as part of the exhibition : . The future of Taranaki's Pāsifika communities is up for debate this weekend at New Plymouth's contemporary art museum. A Talanoa – an in-depth conversation – will run for three days at the district's Govett-Brewster Art Gallery as part of the exhibition : . Highlights include community cooking sessions and shared kai, artist presentations, workshops, youth and community-led talks and curatorial discussions on Pacific art practices. The Gallery says the Talanoa explores 'how art, cultural practice, and collective dreaming can shape a vibrant future for Pasifika people in Taranaki and beyond.' Govett Brewster director Zara Stanhope said : was showing new art created in the gallery alongside historical artworks, encouraging intergenerational storytelling. Dr Stanhope said the exhibition was guided by Pacific public programme coordinator Theresa Tongi, Pacific curator-at-large Ruha Fifita, and the Gallery's Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa Advisory Group. Lalaga means to weave together, or woven, and the Talanoa was created in collaboration with Pacific artists, youth ambassadors and community leaders. 'The Talanoa sessions are a dynamic extension of our current exhibition, : , weaving together the exhibition artists and our community, aiming to deepen connections.' The Gallery's public programs and learning lead Lleah Smith said the exhibition was a 'long-term initiative designed to deepen relationships between the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa creatives.' She said it fostered 'collaboration, mutual support, and cultural exchange, making it essential for anyone… supporting and celebrating Pasifika art and culture,' Like most Govett-Brewster events entry is free apart from the community-led kai on Saturday afternoon, which is $15. : is open until 11 May
