On the 18th and 19th of November Ngāti Ruanui leaders will be at the Supreme Court in Wellington for their final legal battle against TTR’s seabed mining permit.

In 2017 TTR was given consent by a split decision of the EPA to mine up to 50 million tonnes a year of ironsands off the South Taranaki Bight. Ngāti Ruanui worked with the local community and whanaunga iwi to mobilise against the consent.

In 2018, the decision was overturned in an appeal to the High Court, which was upheld by the Court of Appeal in a strong ruling in April 2020. In that same month TTR lodged an appeal to the Supreme Court.

“For six years Ngāti Ruanui has been standing up against a global giant to stop seabed mining and protect Aotearoa from environmental disaster,” said Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui kaiarataki Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.

“We have won every court battle, both in the High Court and Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal found multiple errors of law including how the consent would fail to protect the marine environment and fail to address Te Tiriti principles and our kaitiakitanga relationship with the moana.

“As we have said all along, we are a people of the ocean. It has feed and nurtured us for thousands of years and we have the role as kaitiaki to protect and restore our moana. We are grassroots whānau who simply want to live our best lives in peace,” said Mrs Ngarewa-Packer.

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