High-risk Environmental Gamble Needs to be Debated

14 October 2024

Ngāti Ruanui is urging Parliament’s Environment Committee to not report back on the Fast-track Approvals Bill until it’s heard from the public.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Trust Kaiw’aka’aere Rachel Arnott said the proposed seabed mining operation was a high-risk environmental gamble that needed rigorous debate and oversight.

“There is simply too much at stake to rush this through.

“Ngāti Ruanui has spent an enormous amount of our precious tribal resources in time and money on this process because of the importance of protecting our tikanga, our kaitiaki responsibilities to the environment, and our rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

Ngāti Ruanui requests the committee not report back on the Bill on 18 October, but instead delay their report until committee members have had the opportunity to receive public submissions on the proposed projects to be included in Schedule 2 of the bill.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui Trust taiao Graham Young said it was inappropriate to reward Trans-Tasman Resources for running away from an existing process.

“To do so would be contrary to the purpose of the Bill to promote efficient and speedy decision-making and to the natural justice rights of Ngāti Ruanui and others who have repeatedly, and successfully, exercised those rights through the Courts.”

Young said the Supreme Court found that the project could only be permitted (under the current law) if its proponents could demonstrate that it would not cause material harm to the environment.

“If inclusion of this project results in such harm, which will be an affront to Ngāti Ruanui, the South Taranaki community and most New Zealanders.

“It would also be inconsistent with international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and free trade agreements.”

He said Parliament would not only be voting on the Fast Track Approvals Bill but also on the projects not required to be considered under legislation that provides environmental protection.

 BACKGROUND

Consent was first declined by a Decision-Making Committee of the Environmental Protection Authority 2014 and an appeal against that decline was subsequently dropped. Consent was then granted by an equally divided second Committee (due to the Chair exercising a casting vote) in 2017. Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, along with other submitters, successfully appealed that decision to the High Court and successfully resisted appeals by Trans-Tasman Resources to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The matter was returned to a third Decision-Making Committee to reconsider the application and correct the significant legal errors that the Supreme Court found in the 2017 decision. The Committee had a large volume of evidence before it, including much expert evidence. It conducted its first hearings last month, but on Friday 29 March 2024 Trans-Resources suddenly withdrew its application.

If given the green light the operation would cover an area of 65.76 square kilometres, near the Kupe oil rig.

TTR proposes to extract up to 50 million tonnes of sediment per year and process it aboard a floating processing storage and offloading vessel. About five million tonnes of iron ore concentrate would then be exported.