VICTORY: Brownlie swallows dead rats as Jonkey fires-blanks/back-pedals (again)

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Government backdown on mining

By TRACY WATKINS - Stuff.co.nz | 7:06PM - Monday, 19 July 2010





THE GOVERNMENT is preparing to dump its controversial plans to mine sensitive conservation land.

Stuff.co.nz has confirmed that the Government will announce tomorrow that it has scrapped plans to mine parts of the Coromandel, Paparoa and Great Barrier Island after a public outcry.

It will also announce that there will be no further mining in national parks.

It is a huge backtrack from its earlier announcement that it would investigate mining on protected Schedule 4 conservation land for hundreds of millions of dollars in valuable minerals.

Cabinet discussed the mining plan today but Prime Minister John Key had earlier refused to announce which way it was going to go.

He said the Government had listened to both sides of the debate.

There were also opportunities for mineral and exploration wealth outside of the schedule including iron sands and lignite, he said.

"Schedule 4 is one part of the equation...in terms of the wider mineral and exploration opportunities in New Zealand, it's my view that they can deliver a step change."

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said she was waiting for the decision and was particularly concerned about possible mining in Paparoa National Park and on the Coromandel.

"For the Government to promise it won't mine in national parks and then to do so is a breach of its election promise and shows the Government cannot be trusted," she said.

The Coromandel was the jewel in the crown of the Auckland isthmus area and deserved to be protected.

"The Government will be biting off a very big fight if they decide to mine in the Coromandel and in our national parks because the community has said loud and clear it will not tolerate our national parks being desecrated like this."

Labour leader Phil Goff said New Zealanders strongly opposed mining in national parks, Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel.

The Government was a only the guardian of New Zealand's conservation estate and it should not be exploited by overseas mining companies at a long term cost to New Zealanders, he said.

"The economic benefits touted by John Key in this mining issue have been massively overstate and we look forward to Mr Key admitting he got it wrong."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/3934113/Government-backdown-on-mining


Govt backs down on mining — reports

By PETER WILSON and KATE CHAPMAN - NZPA | 8:04PM - Monday, 19 July 2010



THE GOVERNMENT has scrapped plans to mine conservation land in the face of furious public protest, NZPA has confirmed.

Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee will announced the Cabinet's decision tomorrow, after National's MPs have been told about it at a caucus meeting.

The Government had proposed opening up 7000 hectares of conservation land in the Coromandel, Great Barrier Island and Paparoa National Park to prospecting for valuable minerals.

That land is protected from mining under schedule four of the Crown Minerals Act, and more than 30,000 submissions were made on a public consultation document — nearly all of them opposed to changing its status.

About 50,000 people signed a Green Party petition against it, while an estimated 40,000 marched in protest in Auckland.

Mr Brownlee is expected to announce that not only will there be no mining in those areas but all national parks will in future be protected.

He is likely to unveil plans for mining in other, less contentious parts of the country. That could involve Crown-owned land which is not part of the conservation estate.

Earlier today Prime Minister John Key said the Cabinet had made its decisions on mining conservation land, but told reporters they would have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it was.

He indicated, however, that in future the search for minerals would extend beyond conservation land.

"Schedule four is one part of the equation... in terms of wider mineral and exploration opportunities, it's my view that they can deliver a step change in the economy," he said.

The Green Party, which previously forecast the Government would back down because of public opposition to mining schedule four land, said it would break an election promise if it didn't heed the protests.

Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the Government would be getting into "a very big fight" if it went ahead with its proposals.

Labour leader Phil Goff said the Government was the only guardian of New Zealand's conservation estate and it should not allow it to be exploited by foreign mining companies.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10659875

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Some hotlinks to threads about the currently topical mining issue that have been posted to this General Forum messageboard @ XNC2....


• Govt surveying DOC land for minerals

• The Hooker Valley in Aoraki-Mount Cook National Park....sometime soon....

• Looney Greens Want To Deny NZers Wealth

• Mining permits in protected areas

• The Rape of the Coromanel has Begun

• Mt Aspiring 'mining plan' leaked

• Why I HATE the National Party.

• Stake your claim

• NZ To Tap Into Its Mineral Wealth

• The government attempts to plug the leaks

• National admits dropping nugget to mining firms before election

• Abandoned mine cleanup cost put at $17.4m

• March against mining

• Aucklanders tell “fat-greedy-pig” Gerry Brownlie where to stick his mining!

• Mining considered for all top conservation land

• from the Nats' lower North Island regional conference....

• survey on mining

• VICTORY: Brownlie swallows dead rats as Jonkey fires-blanks/back-pedals (again)

______________________________________

Some hotlinks to other threads posted to this General Forum messageboard @ XNC2 which are relevant to a lesser degree....


• Out of Africa: the blood tantalum in your mobile phone

• GERRY BROWNLEE: I'll huff... and I'll puff... and I'll... I'll... I'll...

• 30 dead in worsening Peru clashes

• High drama in the mountains of ENZED

• Bribes, Business Secrets? Industrial espionage? Its tough in Business these days

• A secret history of Australia and New Zealand

• How to catch up with Oz by 2025 - according to Brash and co

• The “proposed” Haast to Hollyford highway

• China to buy $A70b of Australian coal

• The future: “Earth's Last Stand!”

• Seabed vents found between NZ, Antarctica

• Dam-approval-threat-to-all-rivers

• Smoke or fire? Top miner BHP uncovers 'possible corruption'

• Actor (or Actress) Politicians

______________________________________

There are quite possibly more threads posted to the group about this topic. Hotlinks to them can be added to this list as they are located.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Gerry Brownlie is about to appear live on TV One's Close Up.

This should be good....the face-saving bullshit & spin is going to be spewing out thick & fast.

No doubt he has been consulting with the Beehive's spin-doctors professional bullshit-artists and been coached on what to say to try and make himself and the Nats look good instead of the dorks they are in reality! 

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From step change to a giant U-turn

By VERNON SMALL - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Wednesday, 21 July 2010



IT'S ILL WIND that blows nobody any good in politics.

Future students will be able to use the example of mining on protected conservation land as a textbook template of how not to handle an issue; despite Prime Minister John Key's claim that there is no U-turn here, move along please.

It should have been obvious from the start that threatening to mine land explicitly excluded from mining was a big risk. Yet with plenty of political capital in the bank, it might have been possible to sell as a key means to an end; the so-called step-change in economic growth.

But by targeting a paltry 7000 hectares — out of more than three million protected by schedule 4 and 467,000ha recommended by officials — the Government queered even that pitch. It would have been safer to stress offshore oil and gas potential and the options on non-conservation and even non-schedule 4 land. To go for the most contentious land as the flagship policy was about as ham-fisted as it was possible to get.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee was yesterday mounting a rearguard action — also known as butt-covering — claiming that, however it was handled, the end point would have been the same.

That is highly debatable, but you have to feel sorry for Mr Brownlee, who saw it as a tangible means to that step-change; at least till he belatedly decided on a backdown.

There is no doubt he was the prime driver with a speech last year, and little warning to colleagues. But since then other ministers, including Mr Key, have been enthusiastic, arguing that "surgical mining" was possible and desirable; up to the point when Queen Street marchers and the Lucy Lawless/Robyn Malcolm chariot rolled into the forum.

Far from listening and bowing to public opinion, Mr Key's speech to Parliament in February promised that: "Notwithstanding the public consultation process, it is my expectation that the Government will act on at least some of these recommendations and make significant changes to schedule 4."

Yesterday he spun this as accurate because there were changes — by adding to schedule 4 land. Pull the other one. His next sentence made it clear. "This is because new mining on Crown land has the potential to increase economic growth."

Yep, it's a U-turn all right.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/politics/3938297/From-step-change-to-a-giant-U-turn