8 August 2013

Denniston decision an environmental and climate disaster

The Government is allowing one of the most unique native ecosystems in the world to be destroyed by Australian coal miners Bathurst Resources Ltd, the Green Party said today.

The Environment Court today ruled to allow Australian owned Bathurst Resources Ltd to construct an open cast mine on conservation land on the Denniston Plateau.

“The National Government are ripping open this rare and stunning landscape for coal mining,” said Green Party mining spokesperson Catherine Delahunty.

“It’s simply immoral.

“The Denniston Plateau isn’t just any old piece of the conservation estate. Its sandstone plateau ecosystem is home to bonsai gardens of rata, tussock, and pigmy pine; home to great spotted kiwi, carnivorous giant snails, and green geckos.

“The only other place remotely like the Denniston Plateau is the Stockton Plateau—a place destroyed forever with decades of opencast mining.

“This National Government has been determined to mine for coal at Denniston from the outset, no matter what the environmental cost or the impact on our climate.

“Prime Minister John Key has publically backed Bathurst Resources, opening their Wellington headquarters in 2012.”

Ms Delahunty vowed to keep fighting to protect Denniston. A protest will take place this afternoon in Wellington outside the offices of mining lobbyists Straterra.

“New Zealanders love and want to protect our conservation land. In 2010, forty-thousand people marched down Queen Street to protect our conservation land from mining,” said Ms Delahunty.

“This mine is not in the interests of New Zealanders. Bathurst’s planned open cast coal mine on conservation land will destroy habitat and increase carbon emissions while the profits go offshore.”

ends

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