a day ago
Waitangi Tribunal pushes pause on seabed mine claim
The Tribunal parking the seabed mine claim is a rare setback for mana whenua who've resisted Trans-Tasman's plans since before the first application in 2013.
Photo:
Te Korimako o Taranaki
The Waitangi Tribunal has rejected the application to halt a fast-track bid to mine the seabed off Pātea - but has left the door open if the process turns out to be unfair.
Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has applied through the new Fast-Track Approvals Act (FTAA) to mine for iron, titanium and vanadium in the South Taranaki Bight.
Multiple South Taranaki hapū and iwi sought a Tribunal injunction to block processing of the fast-track application, and an urgent hearing into alleged Crown Treaty breaches.
But Tribunal deputy chair Judge Sarah Reeves agreed with the Crown that the fast-track needed a chance to be proven fair.
The Crown argued a panel had not even been appointed - and that iwi will contribute to that selection and get a say once the decision-making panel is working.
The Waitangi Tribunal grants urgent hearings in exceptional circumstances: applicants must be suffering - or likely to suffer - significant and irreversible prejudice from current or pending Crown actions.
"I do not agree that the risk of significant and irreversible prejudice has crystallised, and the application is premature," said Judge Reeves.
"The application does not yet meet the high threshold required to divert the resources and disrupt the Tribunal's inquiry programme that would result by granting an urgent inquiry," she ruled.
"However, leave is reserved for the applicants to renew their application if circumstances change."
Claimants said they had already suffered prejudice from their decade-long fight against TTR's mining application, right through to defeating the company in the Supreme Court.
Mana whenua said government bias made the fast-track process unjust.
Judge Reeves said the claimants believe "the Crown's vocal support of the [seabed mining] project and the FTAA appears to make meaningful engagement with the applicants or delay of the project to pursue alternative remedies 'highly unlikely'".
On Friday in New Plymouth Shane Jones - the minister of oceans and fisheries, and of resources - called opponents a [ "belligerent, well-organised, rowdy] bunch of activists."
He had previously dismissed mana whenua objectors as "pixie-like hapūs" - which many felt was an insult that still rankles in South Taranaki.
Taranaki mana whenua claimants to the Tribunal are:
Trans-Tasman Resources boss Alan Eggers says the seabed mine would bring jobs and riches without harming the environment.
Photo:
Te Korimako o Taranaki
Other parties include Climate Justice Taranaki, Ngāruahine's school Te Kura o Ngāruahinerangi and from outside the region Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou ki Hauraki who also face an FTAA application.
For the fast-track bid to be rejected the mine's negative impacts must significantly outweigh national and regional benefits - meaning environmental and cultural damage must be deemed greater than the money the mine makes for Taranaki and New Zealand.
Last Thursday the organisers of the fast-track decision process ordered TTR to [ show where it had updated its evidence] since losing in the courts.
"Almost all of the technical appendices are dated 2015 and were obviously prepared to support the 2016 application. Only a handful of those reports were updated in 2023 or 2024," noted panel convener Jennifer Caldwell.
"The Cultural Values Assessment report, prepared by an independent consultant in 2017, was not updated despite what must have been new information as to the Māori concerns."
A month earlier panel conveners ordered the Environmental Protection Authority to dig into the proposed seabed mine's [ environmental and economic impacts].
Every day of operation for at least 20 years the mining ship would discharge 180,000 tonnes of unwanted seabed sediment, a recognised pollutant, into the abundant waters of the Pātea Shoals.
TTR claims region benefits of:
A report for the miners predicted annual national gains of:
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air.
