Te Pāti Māori co-leader Ngarewa-Packer says her iwi has been fighting Trans Tasman Resources for 13-14 years and is up for the long battle, now it’s on the government’s approved list for fast-tracking.
Trans Tasman Resources failed in its bid to mine 50 million tonnes of ironsands off South Taranaki a year for 35 years, finally losing in a Supreme Court decision.
TTR’s proposal had been resisted throughout by mana whenua, including Ngarewa-Packer, and environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Kiwis Against Seabed Mining.
Now Ngarewa-Packer says she will do everything within her living breath to make sure the ‘coalition chaos’ government is a one-term government.
The iwi and environmentalists had objected to TTR’s plan, arguing there would be too much disruption and irreversible damage to the environment.
TTR has claimed the project will have short-term and confined environmental impacts with rapid recovery and environmental rehabilitation.
However, Juressa Lee of Greenpeace (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi te Rangi) says TTR has failed time and time again to prove these claims and has been rejected numerous times including by the Supreme Court because of the environmental impact.
“If TTR refuses to have its claims tested through due process, at this point, I would only say that whatever is on its website is industry propaganda,” Lee says.
Ngarewa-Packer says seabed mining will wipe out habitats and lead to the extinction of entire species – “compromising the livelihoods of our coastal communities”.
“Thirty-year permits allowing plumes of sludge, sediment, and residual metals to be discharged from ships will impact ecosystems hundreds of kilometres away from the mining sites.”
Climate activist India Logan-Riley (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Rangitāne) says they anticipated the list because ministers have been vocal in their support for projects and companies “in the business of climate pollution and environmental destruction”.
“We’ve already seen from other proposed legislation changes they want to lift the oil and gas ban, they want to open up coal mining and increase industrial agriculture,” they say.
Logan-Riley says Pacific governments and leaders have called out the New Zealand government for backtracking on climate commitments.
They say the government is “committing us to a future that is really unstable” and will mean the continuation of climate disasters such as that faced by Dunedin on Friday and what Te Matau a Māui faced with Cyclone Gabrielle.
Asked about the benefits of the fast-track legislation which may include iwi projects and housing initiatives, Ngarewa-Packer says these initiatives should be “business as usual”.
“They shouldn’t be patting themselves on the back because they’re starting to address the housing crisis, which they were part and parcel of as well,” she says.
Logan-Riley says over the past couple of months the government has announced pauses on public housing it was committed to. “This is almost like their way of committing to the ongoing privatisation of housing.”
Recently the advocacy group, Public Housing Futures, made a map showing all the public housing development sites across Aotearoa that have been paused or cancelled.
“Even though they’ve mixed in some solar panel consenting within the fast track, that really doesn’t do anything to combat the fact that they don’t care about a livable future or te Tiriti,” Logan-Riley says.
“There’s actually no benefit to this legislation and we have to take a really principled opposition to the fast-track bill because it’s still redefining Māori rights and te Tiriti rights in a very narrow intepretation.”
They went on to say the consistent use of ‘customary rights’ narrows the full tino rangatiratanga and protection of taonga.
“It gives a small group of people the power to override all the environmental and heritage and democratic protections that exist in current legislation,” they said.
Logan-Riley says they believe what is needed to provide good infrastructure and housing is a ministry of green works, which has been advocated for by unions, Māori architects and urban designers.
A ministry of green works would be a new public agency that would focus on green infrastructure to build resilient and sustainable communities to deliver on infrastructure and housing while making sure climate pollution reduction is embedded right from the start.