To mine or not to mine - that is the question

Nobody asked me, but… why are so many people getting so exercised about the mere mention by Government of possibly mining some parts of our country to increase our national income?
Judging by some of the reaction, you could be forgiven for thinking that the bulldozers and mining equipment were already ripping up the most pristine parts of Fiordland and Mt Cook was fast disappearing before our eyes. But that is not the case – just yet anyway.
All that has been done by the Government so far is the release of a discussion paper that has floated the idea of planning to take some land in the Coromandel, Great Barrier Island and parts of Paparoa National Park on the West Coast out of the protection of schedule 4 in the Crown Minerals Act.
The Government will also spend $4 million looking at potentially mineral-rich schedule 4 land in other parts of the Coromandel and in Paparoa National Park, as well as Rakiura National Park on Stewart Island.
Granted, the Government would not be floating such ideas if it were not keen to pursue at least some of them. However, when you are borrowing $250 million a week just to stay afloat; then I guess desperate times will promote desperate measures.
But is all that desperate of a measure to try and see if we can exploit some of the billions of dollars worth of minerals tied in the conversation estate to increase our national wealth and help pay for the kind of education, health care and pensions that people in this country demand and expect?
According to Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson a stock take has put the value of New Zealand's mineral resources at $194 billion, excluding coal and hydrocarbons, of which $80b was on schedule 4 land. There was potential for about $60b worth to be mined.
These sort of sums sure would go a long way to improving our national wealth. However, on the other side of the ledger, things like New Zealand’s clean, green image, any possible damage mining would do to the ecosystem and are is the country willing to sacrifice some of our conversation estate need to be weighed up.
As John Key says: "The question is whether the merits of the argument stack up. At the moment, what we're saying to New Zealanders is there is a real potential there, there is already extensive mining activity in New Zealand and here is an opportunity to potentially extend that."
Surely the PM is right and it wouldn’t hurt for the country to have a proper conversation about mining on the conversation estate? Would it not make sense for people to have a rational debate about how we expect New Zealand to continue having a first-world country and the services that we all expect?
While I accept and expect the usual bunch of suspects – i.e. the soap-adverse, work shy, ne’r-do-wells such as hippies, Greenies, professional protesters and Phil Goff – to be against the move.
Because? Well because it is an idea floated by the National Government and the work-shy, soap-adverse and Phil Goff are just philosophically opposed to anything proposed by a National Government.
You can’t blame Goff. After all he is Leader of the Opposition (apparently) and his job is to oppose anything the Government says and does – even if it is a good idea!
Meanwhile, you would expect nothing less from Greenies and Hippies. These soap-dodgers just hate the idea that anything may make people and the country financially better off. Their view of the world is: If it makes money it must be bad! If it is a tree – it must be hugged; and if it is a whale it must be saved!
So no surprises with the likes of Phil Goff and the sandal wearers being opposed to the idea of mining. But we now have National MP Nikki Kaye and Auckland centre-right mayor John Banks attacking the Great Barrier Island proposal.
However, I feel their disapproval of the idea should be taken with a large grain of salt and is more to do with political opportunism rather than any core belief.
Banks is an old campaigner from way back who is in the fight of his life to secure the mayoralty of the new super-sized Auckland. He probably feels he can secure votes off lefty rival Len Brown by coming out anti-mining. Banks is so desperate to win the mayoral chains of the new Auckland if he thought there were votes in eating babies her would do it!
Meanwhile, Nikki Kaye is a wet-behind-the ears ditz, who has done nothing and achieved even less in her lifetime. Quite frankly, she is a prime example of why twenty-something’s make such bad MPs. She has actually seen very little of life, apart from what she gleamed at university and the odd Young Nats meeting (which is apt as any Young Nat is distinctly odd) so her view of the world is not all that well rounded.
However, what Banks and Kaye’s faux opposition does show is that the Government has a real fight on its hands to win over Joe Public to the idea. It already has the combined forces of the Greenies, the anti-everything brigade and the Labour Opposition running a scare-mongering campaign and steadfastly opposed to the idea.
Currently the public mood is 50-50 on the idea and it will just be interesting to see where public opinion goes.
The Government has its lines polished. It points out that the country's books are in a parlous state and it needed money, which mining could help generate, to help families under pressure.
It says only a "tiny percentage" of land - 0.2 per cent - would be removed from the schedule under the proposal - "nothing like the vast tracts of land suggested to date by the environmental lobby".
"We're talking about an area of land that is comparatively the size of a postcard on Eden Park."
“As little as 500ha – the size of a sheep farm – will probably be mined.”
Mining could start in three to five years, with coal and gold reserves likely to be exploited first. But there was also considerable potential in rare earth elements, worth $300 to $500 a kilogram.
So the debate has begun – it will be interesting to see who wins the public’s support. The Government’s proposals or the anti-mining lobby!
It is not so much a case of what’s yours is mine and mine is yours. But more like, mine is yours and keep your mines off ours!