Turei Metiria: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Turei Metiria: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:21991] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 Crown Minerals Group sits within the Ministry of Economic Development which we are discussing at this moment. The Crown Minerals Group is responsible for administering the Crown Minerals Act under which a number of mining companies have made seabed prospecting applications this year. There has been a notable growth in seabed prospecting applications this year because the Government has made seabed mining a more lucrative activity. Changes in the tax regime and the Overseas Investment Commission legislation and of course the Resource Management Act amendments currently before the House make prospecting more attractive because the financial gains are greater and the involvement of the community in the decision-making process will be radically reduced. 
Of course the Foreshore and Seabed Act which gives the Government full legal and beneficial ownership of the seabed and foreshore has opened the doors for mining companies by removing any opportunity for Maori to utilise the protections of Te Tiriti o Waitangi arguments to protect the foreshore and seabed from that activity just as te tiriti arguments protected State forests from sale in the 1980s. 
It was only a couple of months after the foreshore legislation was passed that Black Sand Exploration Ltd made an application to search for ironsand along 3000 square kilometres of coast from the Kaipara Harbour to Taranaki. Ironsand is in very high demand at the moment and New Zealand’s marine area is a potential source of that mineral. The Government has acknowledged that not enough is known about our marine environment to make rational decisions about its use and management yet prospecting for minerals in the seabed is being approved despite that confession. Without quality information and clear long-term planning for the sustainability of the marine environment and its species the environmental costs of allowing such mining will far exceed any fiscal gain that might be made from the selling off of our marine resources. 
The Green Party is opposed to any seabed or foreshore mining in any significant marine habitat and it is clear that most of the seabed prospecting applications now approved are right in the middle of a number of significant habitats most notably those of endangered Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins. There are currently three approved prospecting permits that I am aware of—one from Iron Ore New Zealand Ltd regarding an area off the coast of Taranaki and two from Seafield Resources which is looking for gold off the West Coast of the South Island. 
Black Sand Exploration Ltd—whose application spurred the development of community organisations like Kiwis Against Seabed Mining—has had its application put on hold but that application could be resubmitted at any time. Black Sand Exploration’s original application covered the exact same area as the gill-net ban that is in place along the North Island’s west coast to protect the Maui’s dolphin from further endangerment. There are only about 111 individual Maui’s dolphins left. They are critically endangered and remain at serious risk from human activities. There are endangered Hector’s dolphins along the West Coast of the South Island where the Crown Minerals Group has recently approved gold prospecting permits for the seabed. Prospecting is the very beginning process for mining and in and of itself it is not necessarily a threat to those species. But mining certainly is and we simply cannot afford to add any further damaging human activities in those areas. 
Gill-netting causes the most problems for dolphins but there are other threats. Trawling kills Maui’s dolphins and lost nets can cause havoc. Pollution threatens dolphins—and not only pollution from the sea itself. As dolphins can feed quite close to shore nutrient-rich freshwater that discharges into coastal waters can cause algal blooms and other damage and thereby threaten the habitat of those dolphins. Tourism has damaging impacts as does invasive research. Now we have the added threat of seabed mining which damages dolphin habitats and could lead to increasing rates of dolphin deaths. 
We must have stronger protection measures in place that will restrict or prohibit human activities that threaten those endangered species. Fishing technologies must be subject to a sustainability test and those that fail those tests must be severely restricted in their use. Zero by-catch limits should be set for endangered species like the Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins and near-zero by-catch limits set for other species. Added threats like seabed mining must not be allowed to take place within those fragile habitats.