hazeandsteve

Received an email today....contents.

In what must be a record for broken promises, National have on Day 1 of government delivered a letter to Forest and Bird that they will renege on their promise of public consultation before allowing mining on public conservation land. Denniston will be mined, without the public having a say.

Expat Kiwi

National now have a mandate to ride roughshod.

Its but the thin edge of the wedge, next will be the Kauaeranga Valley in the Coromandel. There's gold in them thar Schedule 4 hills.

Allegedly.

Justcol

and so saving lots of money that would be wasted listening to tree huggers bleating on and on.

I get sick of kiwis whinging on about "why cant we be as prosperous as australia"
NZ is sat on billions of dollars worth of mineral deposits but the Ozzies just get on with the job
while kiwis bleat on about conservation of areas 99% of them have and will never visit.

bourbon-biscuit

Sadly I think JustCol's attitude is probably the majority and I feel we're heading down a path that no petition at this point can stop. If it's not somewhere people visit or get anything (overt) out of then it's fair game and anyone who thinks otherwise is alleged a treehugger and made out to be anti-progress.

Sell our assets, dig everything up and flog that too- why think about tomorrow when today we can profit?

pricklykina

There is a historical precendence for it BB. When land was taken from Maori way back when, one of the arguments was "well they're not using it" It's like someone taking your bach as you only use it for your summer holidays.
I know that I never go to the denniston plateau and am pretty unlikely to, doesn't mean it's not valuable.

Woodlea

I agree with Col, Oz isn't better off because they are so much cleverer than us it is mainly because they exploit their resources fully. All those people that moan about "not being able to eat the scenery" are right, go to north western WA, it ain't pretty but it pays the bills. I hope National have the guts to make the most of our greatest assets and develop these resources. Sell the airline it's a liability not an asset. Dig the coal, uranium, gold etc and charge the farmers for the water.
Go for it National.....nice one

sheene

Because unfortunately, without profit, there may not be a tomorrow for NZ. If the problem is with the Taniwha, they are quite a materialistic sort of beast, and can usually be persuaded to move for a couple of million.

fish.01

There are plenty of conservation discussions in australia as well....currently a 'lock the gate' protest by farmers in qld for example: http://lockthegate.org.au/

Expat Kiwi

Except of course Australia has the rail, road and air infrastructure to support a mining industry. Plus its so massive that most of its mines are well away from centres of population and in places where people don't want to live or spend their holidays. You think its bad now trying to get to Thames for a weekend break, wait until they sink in a mine next to it and ore trucks are coming and going 24 hrs a day .

Most of the tax revenue will go offshore, foreign mining companies will bring in their own workers and pay the locals peanuts.

It's all well and good to make tree hugger jokes, until a gas company tells you its coming round tomorrow to frack-your-patch and there's nothing you can do to stop them.

Expat Kiwi

So you'd be ok for the resources under Rangiora to be exploited and don't mind it being turned into an open cast mining town?

Woodlea

They already do! Lots of gravel dug up at Taggarts and Allied to make concrete and backfill!

Expat Kiwi

Gravel, isn't that what you find on a beach. Hardly going to sky rocket the economic success of New Zealand is it?

No, I'm talking real mining now, something like Australia's Super Pit http://www.superpit.com.au/PhotoLibr...6/Default.aspx on your doorstep.

New Zealand isn't a large country, if you want the economic might that Australia has got mining has got to be done large scale and with the minimum of fuss and nonsense. There's no place for nimby-ism or half measures like minimal environmental damage, surgical mining techniques like those at Pike River Mine.

Woodlea

No, we have sand

Charismatic

I'm sure it will be a top notch mining operation with appropriate consideration given to ecological damage limitation and with profits distributed for the benefit of society.



What a bunch of losers Kiwis are, profits will be made and the bill to clean up (which experience in New Zealand has shown us previously can be costlier than the revenues generated) will be left to future generations of the public.

My problem isn't with mining really, it's with the cnuts who are supposed to be representing public interests.

Clappy

The trouble with leaving all that stuff in the ground is that when all the resources have run out elsewhere, someone with bigger guns will turn up and take it off us.

Take the money now I say!