The oceans and fisheries minister says Supreme Court judges and local body politicians have been cowed by fear in a culture war over seabed mining.

Minister Shane Jones was in New Plymouth on Friday to deliver a stump speech for New Zealand First.

Afterwards he said confrontation and fear had led to court rulings that blocked would-be seabed miners, and votes by local councils against the mine.

“The Supreme Court, when it got involved, it was confronted with a highly charged atmosphere which is still prevailing, which is what's driving fear in your local government to stand up against this belligerent, well-organised, rowdy bunch of activists,” said Jones.

“I think these natural resource debates have turned into a culture war.”

Jones freely admitted taking shots from one side of the battle lines – including calling South Taranaki mana whenua “pixie-like hapūs”.

“I am never, ever going to take a backward step to the well-drilled, highly-orchestrated, Greenpeace-orientated campaigners who probably operate out of the local iwi office anyway, such is the level of cross-contamination.”

Opponents have fought the proposal to mine the seabed off Pātea since before the first official application in 2013, winning in the High Court, Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court in 2021.

Spearheaded by Ngāti Ruanui, opposition spread to neighbouring Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi and hapū of Ngāruahine.

In the Supreme Court tribes were joined by the Taranaki-Whanganui Conservation Board, the government’s Environmental Protection Authority, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, Greenpeace and Forest & Bird.

Also party to the court challenge were Fisheries Inshore New Zealand, the New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen, Southern Inshore Fisheries, Talley’s Group, Cloudy Bay Clams and Te Ohu Kaimoana.

Jones himself chaired Te Ohu Kaimoana before entering Parliament, controversially continuing to earn an annual fee of $70,000 as a director despite being an MP.

Taranaki’s eight Crown-mandated iwi agencies have collectively declared against the mine.

District councils of South Taranaki, Whanganui and New Plymouth voted to oppose seabed mining after hearing from the miners and from community opponents.

Jones claimed “an enormous amount of brouhaha driven by misinformation” and couldn’t think why councillors would stand against the mine – except out of fear as local elections loom.

As during his last Taranaki visit, the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, of Resources and of Regional Development demonstrated a loose grip on details – in spite of his repeated vocal support for the mine.

He told his party's public meeting seabed mining was like dredging Port Taranaki – an argument made last month by New Plymouth councillor and former NZ First candidate Murray Chong, who was in the audience.

“Where do you put all the dredgings?” asked Jones.

“I'll tell you where you put them: You put them back into the host environment otherwise known as the coastline of Taranaki.”

Over the past four years some three million tonnes of blacksand dredgings from Port Taranaki have been dumped in two approved zones near the shoreline, to keep the harbour clear and restore sand drift to New Plymouth beaches reduced by the port’s breakwaters.

The ongoing port dredging is less than two percent of the proposed seabed mine's waste: every four years Trans-Tasman Resources would discharge 180 million tonnes of seabed sediment – a recognised pollutant – into the abundant waters of the Pātea Shoals.

Trans-Tasman’s mining ship would take just 18 days to match four years of port dredging, and continue to do so for at least 20 years at the boundary of the 12-mile territorial limit.

The subsidiary of Australian company Manuka Resources wants Fast-track approval to suck up 50 million tonnes of blacksand annually to extract iron, titanium and vanadium and then dump 45 million tonnes back into the marine environment.

More mining ships are likely if the application sets a Fast-track precedent, with a second bid by Trans-Tasman’s former chief financial officer on hold pending the results.

Jones challenged the half-dozen journalists probing him about the mine.

“Don't you find this debate amongst yourselves tiresome?" he asked.

“I mean, haven't you got anything to talk about beyond this?”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air

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