National okays drilling in pristine native forest

The government has opened up large areas of pristine native forest to oil drilling without any consultation. The minister when asked had never even heard of Victoria Forest Park

Minister didn't know park was in drilling plan

3 News can reveal the Government is opening up the Department of Conservation's (DOC) biggest forest park for oil and gas exploration.'

TV3,

8 April 2014

That came as news even to the minister who signed it off, with Simon Bridges admitting today he had never heard of the park.

Victoria Forest Park is 200,000 hectares - DOC's biggest forest park, and is described by the department as "pristine" and "untouched".

Last week the Government signed off a block offer - the biggest area ever of sea and land for potential oil and gas exploration. That included huge chunks of land on the West Coast. In the middle of one is Victoria Forest Park.

None of it includes what's known as Schedule 4 land - the conservation estate National promised it would not drill.

A forest park like Victoria is one step down from a national park and has less protection.

Mr Bridges says there will still be controls like getting resource consent before any drilling can take place.

"There will be the Department of Conservation and local authorities that an operator needs to contend with," he says.

But opponents are using the potential oversight to go on the attack.

"It is a shocking indictment for the callous disregard that Simon Bridges has for our conservation estate that he is opening up thousands of square kilometres," says Green Party co-leader Russel Norman.

DOC describes Victoria Forest Park as having "untouched landscapes with stunning river, lake and mountain scenery, as well as pristine beech forest. There are several ecological areas and a wildlife corridor." But Mr Bridges was not even aware it existed.

"I think what I do know is that this is the West Coast, there's been mining and this sort of activity for over a hundred years," he says.

National parks will remain safe from drilling but a forest park described as "untouched" is on the block. Mr Bridges may not have known about it today, but the environmental lobby won't let him forget it in a hurry.

To see video GO HERE

Report shows 61 dangerous petroleum incidents

3 News has uncovered dozens of dangerous incidents in the petroleum sector in recent months. It includes two fires and three near-misses officials feared had the potential to cause major accidents.

TV3,

7 April, 2014

Energy Minister Simon Bridges last week opened the biggest oil exploration area in New Zealand history, and assured the crowd we are world leaders in safety.

But 3 News has obtained a list of what are classified dangerous events - 61 in total since a new petroleum High Hazards Unit was setup seven months ago.

"We are now reporting much more than we were," says Mr Bridges. "In a sense it's not a surprise that the numbers seem relatively high. But no, it's not good enough and we've got to see them come down."

The incidents include two fires at installations, six uncontrolled releases of hydrocarbons, 15 events that saw emergency response plans activated and three incidents with the potential to cause a major accident.

"Every time there is something like that there is potentially a very serious issue. I think we should be glad they were just potential issues and not the real thing," says Mr Bridges.

None of the incidents involved the contentious deep-sea drilling exploration by Anadarko off the coast of Taranaki and the Canterbury Basin last year.

Most incidents were at onshore wells, although five were at the Maui Gas field

To see video GO HERE

Opinion: Is Simon Bridges asleep on the job?

TV3,

8 April, 2014

Is Simon Bridges asleep on the job?

Does he spend his days as a Cabinet minister slumped at his desk and snoring away while he rakes in $268,000 courtesy of the taxpayer?

Because the only explanation for the Energy and Resources Minister having absolutely no idea that he signed off a Department of Conservation forest park for oil and gas exploration is that Bridges was in dreamland at the time. It simply does not make sense otherwise.

Bridges actually had to be told by our reporter Brook Sabin that he had opened up the 200,000 hectare Victoria Forest Park on the West Coast for exploration in last week's block offer.

Bridges had no idea he'd signed that off.

How can you sign off an entire DOC park and not realise?

It is certainly the biggest political brain fade ever in terms of size - bigger than a United Nations bank account, a secret trust or a phone call to help score a childhood friend into a spy job.

Bridges missed a 200,000 hectare DOC park!

It has been called the "Forgotten Forest", but the Bridges brain fade is worse than that because he didn't know about the forest to forget about it.

If I was John Key, from now on I would get someone like Gerry Brownlee to give Bridges a good shake every time he comes into Cabinet to make sure he's awake.

Brownlee needs to shake the hell out of Bridges and say, "Are you awake son? We're signing off important stuff here!"

Also Key should maybe suspend Bridges from signing stuff until it's figured out why he is signing important paperwork without reading it.

As I said on Twitter last night, Bridges should certainly for his own sake be kept away from clinical trials or Nigerian scamsters because it seems as if he will sign anything that's put in front of him!

All jokes aside, Bridges' behaviour here is concerning for a minister. I'm not taking a view on whether allowing oil and gas exploration on a DOC forest park is good or bad – there are pros and cons to that argument.

But Bridges should have known he was signing off a DOC park for due diligence. At the very least he should have known about it for pure political management.

A DOC forest park is a step below a DOC national park and the protected Schedule 4 land.

On DOC's website Victoria Forest Park is described as "pristine" and "untouched" - this was always going to be controversial.

Alarm bells should have rung when Bridges heard the words "DOC land" as officials got the pen ready - people marched in the streets over National's plans to mine national parks.

It beggars belief that officials did not tell Bridges he was opening up a park - this is a block offer, not a crude game of pin the tail on the donkey.

How he missed this is inexplicable.

He should have had an argument as to why the park was being put on the block ready to go - costs, benefits, risk levels et cetera.

What makes this worse is that Bridges had plenty of warning before Brook Sabin's interview yesterday - Brook started making inquiries with officials about what specific DOC land was on offer last week.

Officials tip off ministers as a matter of course on these types of inquiries, but Bridges still had no idea about the park. Incredible.

Bridges was already a moving target for the environmental lobby and this forgotten forest makes him a stationary one.

National just can't seem to get it right when it comes to mining and drilling. It has not learnt the lesson of the national park mining revolt that being upfront with the public is key to stopping public backlash.

Bridges was put into the Energy and Resources role with the thought he'd be a smoother interface with a public sceptical to mining and drilling.

But Bridges has been anything but smooth. His mentor Steven Joyce must be spewing.

Bridges' inexplicable and incredible oversight has already started a backlash. Bridges is becoming a liability to National and an asset to the environmental lobby.

And if Bridges wasn't fast asleep and dreaming when he signed off the park, he must properly explain what he was doing putting that signature of his on important papers without reading them.

Bridges errs in Norman comments

The Department of Conservation (DOC) calls it pristine, but Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges says he did not need to know a massive area of the West Coast that he opened up for drilling was a DOC park.

TV3,

9 April, 2014

The Victoria Forest Park is 200,000 hectares which DOC calls "pristine". Mr Bridges today defended his decision to sign it off for oil drilling - without knowing it existed.

"I had a good understanding of the conservation estates," he says.

But he had no understanding whatsoever of Victoria Park yesterday.

"I'm aware of some of those matters and also that Russel Norman allowed open-cast coal mining in that area," he says.

But Mr Bridges went too far - the Greens have never formally been in Government. Dr Norman has never allowed coal mining.

"Ministers are not entitled to stand up and make blatant lies in this House," says Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei.

The DOC forest park is a grade below a national park. There are 58 mining permits in it already, the majority for gold mining.

Mr Bridges says because the Government's oil and gas block offer didn't include any of the protect DOC Schedule 4 land, he didn't need to know about the park.

But the Greens have calculated exactly what is on the block, including:

• 15 ecological areas
• six historic reserves
• two scientific reserves
• a wildlife management area
• a historic cemetery reserve

Fifty-thousand people marched in Auckland after the Government wanted to mine in national parks, and the Government eventually bowed to pressure - saying it would not.

Now Mr Bridges' blunder has got conservation groups mobilising forces again.

To watch video GO HERE

See these photos to see what's at stake