Latest news with #Fast-trackApprovalsAct
Scoop
5 days ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Tribunal Asked To Halt Seabed Mine Fast-Track
South Taranaki hapū want the Waitangi Tribunal to halt a fast-track bid to mine the seabed off Pātea. Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has applied under the new Fast-track Approvals Act to mine in the South Taranaki Bight for 20 years. The mining and processing ship would churn through 50 million tonnes of the seabed annually, discharging most of it back into the ocean in shallow water just outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit. Hapū and iwi are seeking a tribunal injunction to block processing of TTR's fast-track application. The claimants want an urgent hearing into alleged Crown breaches and are seeking to summon Crown officials they say are responsible. They say the Crown failed to consult tangata whenua, breaching Te Tiriti o Waitangi and ignored a Supreme Court ruling against the seabed mine. To get an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing, applicants must be suffering or likely to suffer significant and irreversible prejudice, as a result of current or pending Crown actions. Lead claimant Puawai Hudson of Ngāruahine hapū Ngāti Tū said their moana was rich in taonga species. "If seabed mining goes ahead, we lose more than biodiversity - we lose the mauri that binds us as Taranaki Mā Tongatonga [people of south Taranaki]," Hudson said. The area was also subject to applications under the Marine and Coastal Area Act - the law that replaced the Foreshore and Seabed Act. "This is not consultation - this is colonisation through fast-track." The applicants' legal team, who're also of Ngāruahine, say the Wai 3475 claim breaks new ground. Legal tautoko Alison Anitawaru Cole and Te Wehi Wright said the Court of Appeal proved the tribunal's powers to require Crown action in urgent and prejudicial cases, when it summonsed Children's Minister Karen Chhour. They argue the tribunal should be able to halt other urgent and prejudicial Crown actions - such as processing TTR's application under the Fast-track Approval Act (FAA). The Taranaki claimants are: all hapū of Ngāruahine iwi their school Te Kura o Ngā Ruahine Rangi Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Ruanui hapū including Ngāti Tupaea Parihaka Papakainga Trust Groups outside Taranaki facing FAA applications have also joined, including Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou ki Hauraki. As opponents press their claim, TTR is due to argue its case this week at New Plymouth District Council (NPDC). Trans-Taman said opposition to seabed mining lacked scientific credibility and the waste sediment it discharges would be insignificant, given the load already carried by the turbid Tasman Sea. TTR managing director Alan Eggers is expected to lay out his wares to councillors at a public workshop on Wednesday morning. The company promises an economic boost in Taranaki and Whanganui, creating more than 1350 New Zealand jobs and becoming one of the country's top exporters. The only known local shareholder - millionaire Phillip Brown - last week was reported to lodge a complaint to NPDC, alleging bias by its iwi committee, Te Huinga Taumatua. The Taranaki Daily News reported Brown thought tribal representatives and councillors on the committee talked for too long during a deputation opposed to TTR's mining bid. After the hour-and-a-quarter discussion, Te Huinga Taumatua co-chair Gordon Brown noted it was a record extension of the officially allotted 15 minutes. The committee, including Mayor Neil Holdom, voted that the full council should consider declaring opposition to TTR's mine, when it meets on 24 June. Brown reportedly believed the meeting was procedurally flawed and predetermined. Iwi liaison committees in north and south Taranaki typically relax debate rules to allow fuller kōrero. Taranaki Regional Council's powerful policy and planning committee recently reached a rare accord on dealing with freshwater pollution, when its new chair - Māori constituency councillor Bonita Bigham - suspended standing orders in favour of flowing discussion. Ngāti Ruanui has stood against Trans-Tasman for more than a decade, including defeating their application in the Supreme Court. Rūnanga kaiwhakahaere Rachel Arnott said the Crown should know mana whenua would never give up. "We are still here, because our ancestors never gave up fighting for what is right.
1News
5 days ago
- Politics
- 1News
Waitangi Tribunal asked to halt Taranaki seabed mine fast-track
South Taranaki hapū want the Waitangi Tribunal to halt a fast-track bid to mine the seabed off Pātea. Trans-Tasman Resources has applied under the new Fast-track Approvals Act to mine in the South Taranaki Bight for 20 years. The mining and processing ship would churn through 50 million tonnes of the seabed annually, discharging most of it back into the ocean in shallow water just outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit. Hapū and iwi are seeking a tribunal injunction to block processing of Trans-Tasman Resources' fast track application. The claimants want an urgent hearing into alleged Crown breaches and are seeking to summon Crown officials they say are responsible. ADVERTISEMENT They say the Crown failed to consult tangata whenua, breaching Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and ignored a Supreme Court ruling against the seabed mine. Rachel Arnott - seen here with kaumatua Ngāpari Nui at the NPDC committee now accused of bias - says unlike the miners Ngāti Ruanui will never leave South Taranaki, and will never give up. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting) To get an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing, applicants must be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant and irreversible prejudice as a result of current or pending Crown actions. Lead claimant Puawai Hudson of Ngāruahine hapū Ngāti Tū said their moana was rich in taonga species. 'If seabed mining goes ahead, we lose more than biodiversity, we lose the mauri that binds us as Taranaki Mā Tongatonga (people of south Taranaki),' Hudson said. The area was also subject to applications under the Marine and Coastal Area Act – the law that replaced the Foreshore and Seabed Act. 'This is not consultation – this is colonisation through fast-track.' ADVERTISEMENT The applicants' legal team, who were also of Ngāruahine, said the Wai 3475 claim broke new ground. Legal tautoko Alison Anitawaru Cole and Te Wehi Wright said the Court of Appeal proved the Tribunal's powers to require Crown action, in urgent and prejudicial cases, when it summonsed Oranga Tamariki's minister Karen Chour. They argued the tribunal ought also be able to halt other urgent and prejudicial Crown actions – such as processing Trans-Tasman Resources' application under the Fast-track Approval Act. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including a push to lift our superannuation age, rising Middle East tensions, and Auckland's amateur footballers face off against global giants. (Source: 1News) Taranaki claimants • All hapū of Ngāruahine iwi • Their school Te Kura o Ngā Ruahine Rangi ADVERTISEMENT • Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui • Ruanui hapū including Ngāti Tupaea • Parihaka Papakainga Trust. Groups outside Taranaki facing Fast-track Approval Act applications have also joined, including Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou ki Hauraki. As opponents pressed their claim, Trans-Tasman Resources was due to argue its case this week at New Plymouth District Council. Trans-Tasman has said opposition to seabed mining lacked scientific credibility and the waste sediment it discharged would be insignificant given the load already carried by the turbid Tasman Sea. Trans-Tasman Resources managing director Alan Eggers was expected to lay out his wares to councillors at a public workshop on Wednesday morning. ADVERTISEMENT The company promised an economic boost in Taranaki and Whanganui, creating more than 1350 New Zealand jobs and becoming one of the country's top exporters. The only known local shareholder, millionaire Phillip Brown, last week was reported to be lodging a complaint to New Plymouth District Council, alleging bias by its iwi committee Te Huinga Taumatua. The Taranaki Daily News reported that Brown thought tribal representatives and councillors on the committee talked for too long during a deputation opposed to Trans-Tasman Resources' mining bid. Te Huinga Taumatua co-chair Gordon Brown noted after the hour-and-a-quarter discussion that it was was a record extension of the officially-allotted 15 minutes. The committee, including Mayor Neil Holdom, voted that the full council should consider declaring opposition to Trans-Tasman Resources' mine when it was due to meet on Tuesday, June 24. Phillip Brown was reported to believe the meeting was procedurally flawed and predetermined. Iwi liaison committees in north and south Taranaki typically relaxed debate rules to allow fuller kōrero. ADVERTISEMENT Taranaki Regional Council's policy and planning committee recently reached a rare accord on dealing with freshwater pollution when its new chair – Māori constituency councillor Bonita Bigham – suspended standing orders in favour of flowing discussion. Ngāti Ruanui has stood against Trans-Tasman for over a decade, including defeating its application in the Supreme Court. Rūnanga kaiwhakahaere Rachel Arnott said the Crown should know mana whenua would never give up. 'We are still here because our ancestors never gave up fighting for what is right. "Tangaroa is not yours to sell: we will never leave, we will be here way beyond Trans-Tasman Resources, they have no future here.' LDR is local body reporting co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
NZ Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Waitangi Tribunal asked to halt Pātea seabed mine fast-track
South Taranaki hapū want the Waitangi Tribunal to halt a fast-track bid to mine the seabed off Pātea. Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has applied under the new Fast-track Approvals Act to mine in the South Taranaki Bight for 20 years. The mining and processing ship would churn through 50 million tonnes
Scoop
10-06-2025
- General
- Scoop
Seabed Mine Fears Ignite Coast Towns On Ocean Day
Article – Craig Ashworth – Local Democracy Reporting 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
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
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.
