Turei Metiria: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Turei Metiria: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:12679] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I too want to address Vote Prime Minister and Cabinet given that last week the Prime Minister and Cabinet made a decision not to mine schedule 4 land. When we look at some of the other votes we will be debating today we see the vote on the management of the Crown mineral estate. I must say it is a great relief that the Crown mineral estate will now not include the areas that are protected from mining under schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act. Although it is certainly true that we have many battles ahead to protect our conservation estate for conservation purposes as opposed to exploitation and degradation by the decisions of the Prime Minister and Cabinet we must make the time to celebrate this victory for common sense. 
We are a very small country and we are fully dependent on our environment for our economic needs. The green movement alongside hapu is right at the forefront of protecting the intrinsic value of our land and therefore our long-term economic welfare. Just last week the voice of common sense won over short-term political expediency. It was the only real choice because when we love something the only rational response is to stand up and protect it. The victory that is the schedule 4 mining campaign has shown how the Green approach works how Greens make change happen and how Greens will set the agenda. 
Last month I told our annual conference that together we would make the John Key Government back down on its mining madness and we have been very proud to lead that campaign. Last August we challenged the claim that the plans to mine were just a stocktake. In October we revealed that the stocktake included Mount Aspiring National Park among other national parks. In December we dismantled John Key’s and Cabinet’s fallacious economic argument. The minuscule mining royalties are not worth more than the damage to our economy and our environment. By February of this year we had forced the Government to change its agenda and scale back on its mining madness. 
The pressure from the public continued to mount. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders marched through the streets of Auckland to tell John Key and his Government that they said no. Thousands of New Zealanders made submissions to the Government on its proposal to mine schedule 4 land and nearly 50000 New Zealanders signed the Green Party petition against mining our most treasured places. I thank all those people who signed talked and got out on the streets. I thank them for their incredible work. 
We must also recognise and thank the iwi and hapu who have fought to protect our whenua and our whanau in the 170 years since te Tiriti was signed. Too often the struggles of mana whenua to protect their whenua go unnoticed. It is the marae and the hapu who belong to the land and have been kaitiaki since mai ra ano who continue to stand firm to protect these areas from degradation and the decisions of Governments. The struggle for hapu is not over of course with plans from John Key’s Government for deep-sea oil drilling under way and with further mining threats in Northland the West Coast and Southland. But we are successful as a community because we stand alongside each other and respect each other and we work together to protect our land and waters. 
I acknowledge and thank the environmental movement in Aotearoa. The “Too precious to mine” coalition of groups have been leaders too on this campaign against the Prime Minister and his Cabinet’s decisions. These groups such as the Coromandel Watchdog the Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand the Federated Mountain Clubs of New Zealand the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society Greenpeace the Save Happy Valley Coalition and the World Wild Fund for Nature New Zealand are at the front line of New Zealand’s environmental safeguards. 
Without the commitment from the volunteers their supporters and the staff of these environmental non-governmental organisations New Zealand would not have the protected areas and rich biodiversity that it has. The Coromandel Watchdog and other environmental groups in the 1990s fought for 15 years before the schedule 4 protections were put in place in 1997. It was Jeanette Fitzsimons who ensured then that the law required public consultation before any land was removed from schedule 4. Jeanette Fitzsimons helped to give ordinary Kiwis a voice so they could look after their land. Kia ora.