Latest news with #ProtectOurMoana
RNZ News
20 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Taranaki Regional Council rebuffs calls to oppose seabed mining
The seabed mining protest at the weekend. Photo: RNZ / Emma Andrews Taranaki Regional Council has rebuffed calls for it to get off the fence and take a stand against a proposal to mine the seabed off the Patea coast. 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. TTR - which is currently going through the Fast Track consenting process - says it can do this environmentally safely and that its project will significantly boost the national and regional economies. The regional council has twice made neutral submissions on TTR's proposal and at Tuesday's powerful policy and planning committee it chose again to walk that tightrope, arguing that to take a stance could jeopardise its future opportunities to influence the project. A 2024 hīkoi in Patea to oppose seabed mining. Photo: Supplied/ Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Trust Earlier it heard a deputation from Protect Our Moana Taranaki spokesperson Fiona Gordon - who helped co-ordinate a paddle-out protest attended by about 1200 people at west coast beaches over the weekend. She reminded councillors the TRC was the region's environmental watchdog. "Opposing seabed mining aligns with your statutory duty to protect ecosystems and coastal waters for the interest of future generations. The areas within your direct jurisdiction would be harmed and there is no safeguard, no accurate modelling that can really portray what will actually happen." Gordon wanted the TRC to unite with Whanganui and South Taranaki district councils who had come out in opposition of Trans-Tasman Resources' proposal. "Being neutral is not an option when you have a duty to uphold the care of our ecosystems and the well-being of our communities." Ngāti Ruanui iwi member and Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer also addressed councillors. She said TTR's application for Fast Track consents was no different than had been knocked back right up to the Supreme Court and all eight Taranaki were united in their rejection of the proposal. "Is this council going to stand with us, are you part of us or are you going to stand on the side on you're little island away from the rest of us who've been fighting this, away from the rest of us who have to confront this ... where do you belong." On Tuesday, the policy and planning committee was considering a new report on the issue: Fast Track Approvals Act and Taranaki VTM Project (Trans-Tasman Resources). A map showing the area covered by the South Taranaki Bight Project. Photo: Trans-Tasman Resources Following the deputations, committee chair Bonita Bingham outlined her reservations about taking a stance against the project. "I'm concerned that you are urging us to take a stance as a council to opposed seabed mining because we are in the privileged and lucky position where this organisation is going to be possibly or even probably one of the very few that get to submit to the hearing panel. "Now if we in the room approve a motion to oppose seabed mining that would create a conflict of interest and we will be immediately struck off that hearing panel which gives us no voice." In the report, strategy lead Finbar Kiddle, clarified that if the TRC took a stand against seabed mining it could jeopardise its ability as a "relevant local body" to recommend a member to the expert panel considering TTR's application. "The council will very likely be considered a relevant local authority for the Taranaki VTM Project application. This means council will have the opportunity to nominate a panel member and make comment on the application. "The council needs to approach its assessment of the application in a similar manner to if it was assessing a resource consent application. This means avoiding any inference of predetermination, undertaking a robust review of the relevant documents, and focusing on the regulatory tests set in the legislation. "To do otherwise, risks prejudicing council's engagement and undermining its input into the process. Predetermination, either for or against the project, would ultimately harm the position put forward." Councillors voted to receive the report and no motion to oppose seabed mining was put forward.
RNZ News
a day ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Seabed mine fears ignite coast towns on Ocean Day
A group on the Taranaki cape completed representation for the region's three waka: Aotea at Pātea, Tokomaru at Ngāmotu and Kurahaupō at Pungarehu. Photo: Supplied / Climate Justice Taranaki 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. Surfboards and water craft spelled-out 'no seabed mining' on the black sand of Autere. Photo: Photo / Tania Niwa 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." Surfers, kayakers and waka ama paddlers were amongst the 130 who formed a circle off Autere East End Beach in Ngāmotu - one of nine community actions against seabed mining on Sunday. Photo: Photo / Tania Niwa 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. LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
