Anderton Jim: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Anderton Jim: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:21992] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 Firstly I think it has to be recognised that Crown Minerals has been funded through the Ministry of Economic Development output agreement for many years—that is not something new. Crown Minerals administers the permitting regime gives policy advice to the Government on the Crown Mineral Estate and promotes investment in the mineral estate. The key point to note is that there is nothing new in promoting responsible investment in exploration and development. 
The mineral estate has a multibillion dollar value and the growth and innovation framework which this Government follows explicitly recognises the need to manage our natural resources responsibly. I point out to our Green Party colleague that Dr David Bellamy—someone whom I think the Green Party would recognise as a reasonable authority—has stated: “New Zealand has the most environmentally responsible mining industry in the world.” I think any Government would take some comfort from that and I suggest that the Greens could take some comfort from it as well if they were reasonably objective. 
In terms of Black Sand Exploration’s so-called mining proposal let me quickly state a few facts. Firstly there are no proposals currently before the Crown to mine offshore ironsands or mineral sands which would include gold. There is a lot of heat around this issue but there are simply no grounds for it. It is too early to speculate firstly whether a mineable deposit exists and secondly if a resource exists what the scale of it might be and therefore what economic benefits might flow from it. Responsible exploration and mineral production has the potential of course to have a range of economic benefits both regionally and nationally but there is considerable exploration and appraisal work to be done before any meaningful assessment can be made. 
It must be understood that mining permits under the Crown Minerals Act regulate only who is allocated Crown-owned minerals and the royalty returned to the Government from the mining of those minerals. The Crown has treaty partnership obligations under the statute by which iwi and hapu are consulted and areas that are of particular importance to the mana of an iwi can be excluded from any mining permit. 
Secondly public concerns about mining are about whether mining is compatible with communities where people live and also about any possible adverse impacts of mining on the natural and physical resources of communities and their environment. Those concerns are addressed through the resource consent process of the Resource Management Act 1991 just as the environmental impacts of all industries in New Zealand are so managed. If the member has not picked up that there is some discussion around the way in which the Resource Management Act works in terms of development then she must be living on a different island or planet than I live on. There are plenty of people who would say that the Resource Management Act gives sufficient protection—some would even say too much—in terms of development. 
Although the Crown Minerals Act gives jurisdiction for prospecting and/or exploration it does not give automatic permission for extraction and mining. Those applications have to go through the required processes for resource consents which are made to the district and regional councils with responsibility for the geographic area concerned. I think we should have a little more light and somewhat less heat in these issues because as I have stated the reality is that there are no proposals currently before the Crown. The application that the member has mentioned from Black Sand Exploration Ltd for example has been declined because the applicant failed to provide sufficient information to enable a full and proper assessment to be undertaken despite repeated requests from officials. If there is anything about the application being declined that the member does not understand then maybe she could give me a note on it and I will explain it to her.