Friday, July 27, 2018

NZPAM vs the government

Earlier this month, New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals opened up two large areas of the South Island for prospecting. Shockingly, the areas contained a large amount of conservation land, and included national parks and conservation areas listed in Schedule 4, in which no mining is possible. And this was done in advance of a clearly-signalled policy from the government to ban mining on conservation land.

Obviously, there are some serious questions to be asked here, such as "why is NZPAM attempting to undermine and sabotage government policy". Because sabotage is what it is. While mining lobbyists Straterra say "its only prospecting", they are being deliberately disingenuous. Because each permit, unless it expressly specifies otherwise, includes a statutory right to upgrade it if anything interesting is found. A prospecting permit, allowing only aerial surveying and hand sampling, can be upgraded as of right to an exploration permit, allowing drilling and excavation. And that in turn can be upgraded as of right to a mining permit. And there's a real danger that this process will be used to circumvent the ban by the back door. Straterra knows this, so when they tell you "it's only prospecting", they're lying to your faces and treating you like a fool.

As for why NZPAM is doing this, it was obvious from their advice on the offshore drilling ban that they're totally captured by the industry they are supposed to regulate, just as MPI is captured by the fishing and farming industries. Plus of course if there's less mining, then there's less need for NZPAM staff to regulate it, and they can be safely cut. So again, this is about NZPAM protecting their own jobs by promoting the destruction of our environment.

As for how to fix this, the Minister needs to make it fucking clear to all applicants that no permit issued over conservation land in these areas will be upgradeable as of right. And then she needs to wade in there with fire and sword and purge and restructure NZPAM until it implements the policy of the democraticly elected government. Because it is simply unacceptable for any government department to enact its own policy in this manner, and industry-captured agencies need to learn who they actually work for.