Westport Speech
1pm, 29 March 2026
NBS Theatre
Westport

“Fair Share for the Regions”

Good afternoon.

It’s a pleasure to be here on the West Coast, among people who understand the value of hard work, the importance of community, and the reality of what keeps a region alive.

When you think about the West Coast, you think of its rugged beauty and let’s be honest, you think about the rain. But today, we’ve had enough of bureaucrats raining on your parade.

The West Coast is mining country. It’s a place with a proud history of hard work, resilience, and contribution to our country.

Mining isn’t some outdated industry of the past; it is one of our most productive sectors today.

It contributes billions to our economy, supports thousands of jobs, and has the ability to drive growth, real growth, without fuelling inflation. It’s modern. It’s responsible. And it’s more than capable of helping take this country forward. It already does.

Communities like where we are today have always played a vital role in shaping this country. Generations have built their lives around the land, the resources beneath it, and the opportunities those resources create.

That legacy deserves recognition, and it deserves a future. For too long, the story has been the same. Thanks to a broken system, mining communities have contributed enormously to New Zealand’s prosperity but have not always shared fairly in the returns.

In the constant controversy of recent New Zealand. The mining and extracting industries have been the victim of some of the shallowest, narrow

That is why we are here in Westport today announcing our new nation-wide mining policy that we will be campaigning on this election.

We need a policy that reflects the importance of mining and applies common sense and fairness. And that’s exactly what New Zealand First will deliver.

We will make sure regions share in the value their mining resources create. If mining happens in a region, a 50% share of the royalties will stay in that region, so local communities directly benefit from the resources around them – not Wellington.

Not in theory, not buried in layers of bureaucracy, but returned to the West Coast, and other mining communities, to support infrastructure, services, and long-term regional development.

That is fairness and it’s long overdue. Mining communities like the West Coast have carried this country on their back, and they must see the rewards for that.

Alongside regional royalties, we will bring much-needed certainty back to the sector. For too long, mining in New Zealand has operated under unclear rules, shifting expectations, confusing duplication, and processes that are slow, complex, and at times, inconsistent. Some of them, frankly, are downright absurd.

New Zealand First will fix that.

But this policy is not just about fixing a broken system. It’s about unlocking the full potential of this country’s resources. Right now, we don’t even have a clear, modern understanding of what we have beneath our feet. New Zealand’s last comprehensive geological survey dates back decades.

Under our policy, we will invest in a modern, world-class geological survey - AI-ready, open-access, and available to investors and businesses who want to back New Zealand.

And we will go further. We already have valuable core samples, unanalysed and underutilised. So, we will invest in modern core-scanning technology, unlocking that data and making it available to the sector. It’s low cost, but high impact with immediate results.

What’s better than that? Jobs. Because none of this happens without people and without the right skills. So, we will rebuild the pipeline by reopening the School of Mines (last in Thames) and investing in trades and training across the resources sector.

On top of that, we will bring common-sense back into the equation with a clear, deliberate approach to where mining can occur, recognising that there are parts of New Zealand, like the West Coast, where mining has long been part of the economic backbone.

Mining zones will mean we are mining in the right places, with the right rules, and will give businesses the confidence to invest for the long-term and to keep creating the jobs here on the Coast and in other parts of New Zealand. Importantly, it will help the industry to continue to grow, providing more New Zealanders with a prosperous future.

And in terms of the length of permits, they need to reflect that mining is a long-term business to give investors certainty and ensure those permits are for the life of the mine – including rehabilitation.

But growth is not just about digging resources out of the ground. It’s about what we do with them next.

At the moment, we risk getting stuck in a ‘dig and ship’ model for key future industries, sending raw materials offshore and letting others capture the value. We can do better than that and we will, by continuing to invest in the science and innovation needed to process more of our resources here in New Zealand, especially in critical minerals.

We will also reform how decisions are made. Because right now, too many projects are tied up in processes that lack clarity, lack timeliness, and lack balance.

We’ve had a system that talks a big game but doesn’t reflect the reality of the sector.

Mining is different. It has to be located where the minerals are. It doesn’t get to pick and choose. It operates at scale. It builds big things. And yet, it’s been forced to operate under rules that don’t properly recognise those realities.

Under New Zealand First, you will see clearer pathways, more transparent decision-making, and timeframes that actually means something.

And we will back that up with the infrastructure and support systems the sector needs including targeted, regional investment to support the infrastructure that allows these projects to succeed and ensuring our Mines Rescue capability is properly funded.

We will make sure that the role of government agencies,like the Department of Conservation, who have been left to run roughshod over local and regional prosperity, will be brought back into line.

In some cases we’ve seen it take two years for a permit, while the workers and the project sit idle.

Yes, they will still have a job to do, but it cannot be that they are forcing companies to pay tens of thousands of dollars waiting for nonsensical bureaucratic decision making.

That’s a system that’s lost sight of what actually matters. One that has lost all sense of proportion.

It cannot be that regional prosperity is sidelined by processes that have lost touch with reality and have no basis in science, evidence and fact.

We are all in favour of protecting the environment, but again, there has to be some balance because that is not good conservation. That is not good anything. That is bureaucracy gone mad.

What we need is a system that focuses on outcomes, on protecting what matters, while allowing regions like this to get on and grow. It is an absurd and myopic argument to say it’s either protecting the environment or creating jobs and dollars for our regions and our country. You can have both – and this region has shown exactly how it can be done.

Have a look at Oceana Gold’s Globe Progress Mine in Reefton – they have delivered a world-class rehabilitation programme, beautiful landscapes, cycling and walking tracks – and I’m told that it’s even been acknowledged by the Department of Conservation that it is world-class. You can have both economic prosperity and environmental management. And you should.

That’s why we will require decisions by the Department of Conservation and other agencies to properly take into account economic and regional outcomes. Because protecting the environment and supporting regional economies are not mutually exclusive, if you approach them with common sense.

And you can bet that where rules are applied unevenly, or where sectors like mining are held to different standards without good reason, we will be fixing that too.

Last, let me just address one other issue - consultation. Yes, communities deserve a voice. But consultation should not become an endless process that prevents decisions from ever being made.

We will restore discipline to that process, so engagement happens, but outcomes are delivered in a timely fashion. Consultation and decisions should not take years.

Because without decisions, there are no projects. And without projects, there are no jobs. This builds on what we said we’d do and what we’ve already done under Fast-track.

And that brings us back to what this is really about: ensuring New Zealand thrives, with mining as part of the engine.

It’s about recognising that this is a responsible, important industry that needs a stable, long-term framework to invest, to operate, to employ and to create export dollars.

And it’s about making sure that regions like the West Coast are not left behind, but are instead at the centre of that future.

Right now, too much of the system creates delay, cost, and uncertainty, without delivering better environmental outcomes.

And that is something we are going to fix.

Communities like the West Coast know mining. They understand it. They have lived it.

And under our Mining Policy, mining will continue to be recognised for what it is - a vital part of this region’s economy, and a key part of New Zealand’s future.

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Candidate Announcement: West Coast-Tasman

We also have another important announcement to make today.

Today we are announcing New Zealand First’s Westcoast/Tasman Candidate - Jamie Cleine.

Jamie brings proven strategic leadership, crisis management expertise, and a strong commitment to resilient regional communities to his candidacy for NZ First in West Coast–Tasman.

He is a seasoned governance leader with ten years in local government, including six years as Mayor of Buller District.

He led complex work across emergency management and recovery, community and regional development, health services, and civil infrastructure, to deliver outcomes for people, industry and communities.

Jamie is widely recognised for his calm, decisive leadership during multiple states of emergency, coordinating multi-agency responses, fronting national media, and providing clear, trusted communication to communities under pressure.

He has worked collaboratively with ministers and advisors of successive governments as well as sector leaders regionally and nationally. Alongside his public service, he has operated a hands-on dairy and livestock farming business for 26 years, grounding his leadership in the realities of regional industry and rural life.

A strong advocate for the role of regions in driving New Zealand’s growth and GDP, Jamie is committed to ensuring West Coast–Tasman communities have the infrastructure, investment, and policy settings they need to contribute to national prosperity.

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