Forest and Bird calls on government to change bill that could open Coromandel up to mining

The government must urgently fix a proposed law which could open up nearly half of the Coromandel to mining, a conservation group says.

Forest & Bird has raised the alarm that the Conservation Amendment Bill, currently going through Parliament, could see sold-off conservation land in the Coromandel stripped of its protections.

But Conservation Minister Tama Potaka said there had been no deliberate decision to enable mining on protected Coromandel land.

Forest & Bird's chief advisor on conservation policy, Richard Capie, said the bill left Coromandel Crown land off a list of areas the government cannot dispose of or exchange. Therefore, if sold, that land would no longer be protected from mining activities, like it is now, due to its inclusion in Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act.

The group raised the issue with Potaka this week.

"Forest & Bird found a loophole in the Conservation Amendment Bill that meant that protections for the Coromandel from mining could have been overridden.

"On the back of this, the minister has come out and said that that's not their intention. It's really good that the minister has come back with that assurance, but the protection has to be law. So we need to see the bill change."

In a statement, Potaka said he had sought advice on whether there was an unintended consequence from the bill, and if changes were required.

"The omission was not a deliberate decision to enable mining on protected Coromandel land.

"I have not received advice recommending changes to the current prohibition on mining Crown land on the Coromandel, and no decisions have been taken to alter those protections.

"Officials have advised that the interaction between the proposed land exchange and disposal provisions in the Conservation Amendment Bill and the Crown Minerals Act may have created an unintended consequence through the drafting process.

"As with any large and complex piece of legislation, the select committee process provides an opportunity to identify and address issues raised through submissions and scrutiny."

He said the bill was about "modernising" and "improving" conservation land management, not enabling mining on protected Coromandel land.

But Capie said Forest & Bird would keep a close eye on the government to ensure existing Coromandel protections were kept.

"We've needed to ask the question, is this a mistake? Is this an oversight? Or is this deliberate and something that's trying to be smuggled in by stealth?

"The government's track record on the environment isn't great. We've gone as far as to say it's a war on nature. So I guess you'll have to excuse me if we've been a bit sceptical as to whether this was a deliberate move."

He said Forest & Bird is still deeply concerned about the bill, which would open up 60 percent of the country's conservation land for economic development.

"The bill is bigger than the Coromandel.

"The scale of public conservation land that could face development, sale, or exchange is vast.

"New Zealanders want these precious places that are important to us to be looked after. They don't want them sold off. They're saying, 'don't get rid of my access to the places I go hunting, the places I go fishing, the places I go tramping, the places I care about'."

Coromandel Watchdog chairwoman, and former Green MP, Catherine Delahunty, was worried about the southern part of Coromandel being mined.

"We are hoping, obviously, that if this is a mistake, they will fix it, but it will not stop our protesting against this bill because this bill affects our southern area in a very serious way."

"We've got some really important land on the ranges behind Whangamatā, where unfortunately Oceana have a fast track mining consent, right over to places like Puruiri, Maratoto.

"These are beautiful areas that have been forest parks since the 1970s, and they're talking about selling them without a public mandate."

Public submissions on the bill close on 2 July.