This is the scorched earth approach to mining on the sea
bed, lucky our oceans aren't dying, aye? (sic)
'Cunning'
bid to prospect and mine West Coast seabed
16
June, 2015
The
Minister for the Environment has been urged to rule on a "cunning"
bid to prospect and possibly mine a vast area of seabed directly off
the West Coast.
Trans-Tasman
Resources, which spent $65 million in a failed bid to mine ironsands
from the South Taranaki seabed, has shifted focus to now apply for a
prospecting permit here.
But
because the permit area falls within the 12-mile nautical limit, it
will not need a marine consent from the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) if it proceeds to the mining stage.
The
EPA has previously rejected two applications for seabed mining within
the exclusive economic zone, one from Trans-Tasman and another from
Chatham Rock Phosphate.
By
coming in under the 12-mile limit, Trans-Tasman would only need
resource consent from the West Coast Regional Council.
For
now, Trans-Tasman is in the initial stage of getting the exploration
permit.
"They
are being cunning by only applying for an area within 12 nautical
miles (limit), which is within West Coast Regional Council
jurisdiction under the RMA," Green Party mining spokeswoman
Eugenie Sage said today.
The
Minister for Environment could rule and have it dealt with by the EPA
"given (the regional council's) lack of expertise and the EPA's
much greater expertise on the impacts of the proposal and its high
risk," Ms Sage said.
EPA
spokeswoman Tanya Piejus confirmed the authority was responsible for
managing the effects of specified restricted activities on the
environment in the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
That started at the 12 nautical mile mark and extended to 200
nautical miles offshore.
The
prospecting permit Trans Tasman has applied for covers 4436 square
kilometres, extending from Karamea to Ross, from 1km offshore.
Trans-Tasman
said in a statement it would focus on developing offshore mineable
resources of iron rich mineral sands known to host ilmenite, zircon,
garnets and gold. Ilmenite can be used for paint, and garnets for
sandblasting.
Andrew
Stewart, from Tran-Tasman, said they were in the very early stages of
resource investigation.
Getting
the prospecting permit
would
allow them to undertake activities for the purpose of identifying
areas likely to contain deposits of heavy minerals and potentially
precious metals.
"As
such, it is impossible to say at this stage what the potential type
and scale of operations and economic outcomes -- including jobs --
could be."
Prospecting
would be undertaken over a two-year period and include activities
such as collating relevant information, literature reviews,
undertaking geological modelling and potentially conducting surveys
such as sampling and geophysics surveys.
"As
such, these prospecting activities would have almost no impact on the
environment," Mr Stewart said.
Beyond
the 12 nautical mile mark, the water was too deep anyway.
The
company would "actively work with West Coast Regional Council
and other key stakeholders prior to the commencement of any field
work," Mr Stewart said.
New Zealand's emblemic kauri trees are being ripped off to make table tops. The export is illegal, but make a couple of scratches on the log and you can call it a Maori carving
Northland leader calls for halt to swamp kauri trade
A
Northland Maori leader is calling for a moratorium on the mining of
swamp kauri and a review of the laws that regulate it.
Kauri
logs unearthed from peat await sale. Photo: RNZ / Lois Williams
Dover
Samuels said iwi from Te Hapua to Kaipara were fed up with what they
saw as the plundering of a national treasure.
The
one-time Minister of Maori Affairs, now head of Northland Regional
Council's Maori Advisory Committee, said it was time to halt the
trade while a rethink of the whole industry was carried out.
A
listing on Chinese-based website Ali Baba under the heading: 'Ancient
kauri tabletop for dining or boardroom'. Photo: Ali Baba
Mr
Samuels said the advisory Committee had been consulting iwi in recent
months about policy affecting their interests and the consistent
message was that they wanted the industry controlled, in part because
of the damage it's doing to wetlands and lakes.
"Many
of the whanau and hapu where these taonga lie are very concerned
about the exploitation of what they say, and what they see as a New
Zealand taonga, said Mr Samuels. "Not just Maori, but New
Zealand, taonga."
Minister
for Primary Industries Nathan Guy yesterday
defended the regulation of the swamp kauri industry,
saying MPI staff kept a close watch on what was going out of the
country.
The
MPI website says swamp kauri can be exported as manufactured or
finished products, but not as logs.
But
some companies have exported logs legally by carving the surface and
exporting them as finished products, with MPI approval.
Mr
Guy said the trade was good for the country.
"They
are finished products," he said.
"I
have seen some photos where some fantastic-looking swamp logs have
been carved and they're going to be an amazing feature for our
country in an international country that they're destined for.
"We
manage it very, very closely."
Fiona
Furrell, who heads the Northland Environmental Protection Society,
scoffs at the idea that the carvings represent New Zealand.
"The
first one we saw an MPI photo of, we call it the Casper log, because
it looks more like Casper the friendly ghost than any sort of Maori
or authentic carving.
"It's
just this big log with weird markings and paint all over it and what
looks like a big smiley face. "
Mr
Samuels said tangata whenua were not impressed with MPI's rationale
for sanctioning the logs as carvings.
"I
mean, how naive can you be when you say you've applied some sort of
artificial tiki to the log, or an artificial carving to the log, and
say that passes the requirements of the legislation? I mean, that's
absolutely ridiculous."
Ms
Furrell said if Mr Guy thought the swamp kauri trade was good for the
country he should head north and inspect environmental damage caused
by the mining.
"Drained
lakes, drained wetlands, completely destroyed natural environment
that is protected."
The
Northland Environmental Protection Society believes shipments of
swamp kauri are slipping out of New Zealand undetected by MPI or
Customs.
It
says there's no shortage of overseas websites advertising kauri logs
and timber for sale including China's biggest online commerce site,
Ali Baba.
A
kauri log for sale on Chinese-based website Ali Baba. Photo: Ali
Baba
The
society's researcher, John Allen, said photos appeared in June 2013
on the website of a New Zealand shipping company that transported
five logs weighing up to 40 tonnes each from Auckland to a customer
in Shanghai.
Dr
Allen said the society referred the site to MPI and asked it, under
the Official Information Act, to provide records of all its swamp
kauri export certificates for 2013, but the shipment was not among
them.
He
said the society asked MPI and Customs to investigate but nothing has
come of it.
Dr
Allen said further analysis of the export application forms for the
year revealed 23 percent were for unfinished kauri slabs and offcuts,
which he said were illegal; 30 percent had incomplete buyer details,
some giving only a first name and phone number; and more than 10
percent lacked shipping destinations, all details which are legally
required.
Mr
Samuels said these were all clear signs it's an industry that needs
reining in.
At
a time when standing kauri forests are being killed by a fungal
disease, he said, it was even more imperative to conserve the ancient
trees that lay underground.
"Right
now our kauri forests are at risk, and we [Northland Regional
Council] are trying to put together some policies that will ensure
these trees are still standing for generation to come."
Mr
Samuels said there should be a moratorium immediately on swamp kauri
mining, pending a full review of its economic and environmental
impacts.
Northland
MP Winston Peters told Morning Report that the
practices were creating environmental despoilation.
Listen
to Winston Peters on Morning Report ( 4 min 48 sec )
More on corruption in this country. The previous government banned the inhumane practice of live sheep exports getting in the way of the plans of a Saudi businessman. To void being sued this government of (and for) crony capitalists provided a farm for home. It cost more to get each sheep over there than an economy air fare to Saudi Arabia.
Now it turns out there are no Saudi farmers in the desert where the new 'farm' is situated.
Saudi
desert farm a 'sham'
17
June, 2015
Having
poured millions of dollars into a demonstration farm in the Saudi
Arabian desert, the Government now says there are not many farmers in
the area.
The
farm is supposedly for showing off New Zealand agriculture.
But
Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs Todd McClay told Parliament
yesterday he did not know whether Saudi farmers had access to the New
Zealand-funded demonstration farm.
"I'm
not aware that there are a great number of farmers in that part of
the desert," Mr McClay dded.
The
Labour Party said Mr McClay's acknowledgement is further proof that
the Government's Saudi deal is a taxpayer funded sham.
Labour's
trade spokesperson David Parker said the Government had bought off
Saudi businessman Hamood Al-Ali Al-Khalaf, who owns the land where
the demonstration farm is being built, and whose anger over the
cancellation of live sheep exports was preventing a free trade deal
with the Persian Gulf States.
"If
this was meant to showcase New Zealand's agriculture as a model farm
and we've now got the Minister saying there's not many other people
farming in the desert, it really shows what a waste of money this has
been."
The
Government has spent more than $11 million kitting out Mr Al-Khalaf's
farm, including flying sheep to the Saudi demonstration farm, and
funding irrigation and the building of an abbatoir.
Mr
Parker said $4 million of that money was a facilitation payment to Mr
Al-Khalaf. He said facilitation payments are considered to be bribes
in many countries.
The
Government has repeatedly claimed that it was the Labour Party that
created the friction with the Saudi businessman when it was in power,
and that Cabinet papers from that era will prove it.
For
the last two weeks Government ministers have been saying those
Cabinet documents will be released within days.
However
in Parliament yesterday, the Government again blocked Labour from
making the papers public.
Prime
Minister John Key maintained his Government was only fixing what he
called Labour's mess.
"My
position has always been that the Government had to act to try and
tidy up the situation, but it was a situation of Labour's making is
my view," Mr Key said.
But
Opposition parties don't buy that.
New
Zealand First leader Winston Peters asked Mr Key in Parliament
whether the Government's Saudi deal amounted to corruption.
"Is
it not a fact that this Government has entered commercial
arrangements involving bribery, corruption and jack-ups of the tender
process?" Mr Peters asked.
Mr
Key responded that in his experience when you start calling people
names you are losing the argument.
Labour says Saudi sheep papers show it aced legally
The continuing downward movement in dairy prices while indebted farmers go to the wall. How long (between this and drought) before we get farmer suicides?
Dairy
prices fall for seventh time
Dairy
prices have fallen once again, but the rate of decline is more
modest.
17
June, 2015
The
average price dropped 1.3 percent to $US2409 a tonne, the seventh
consecutive all.
A
key price to farmers, whole milk powder, slipped 0.1 percent to
$US2327, while skim milk powder dropped 0.2 percent to $US1978.
This
leaves the dairy sector still waiting for signs of a turnaround in
milk powder prices, in particular.
The
biggest price drop was for anhydrous milk powder - almost nine
percent.
But
there were gains as well: butter milk powder prices increased by an
average of 10 percent and cheddar cheese and butter also rose by more
than two and three percent.
Rennet
Casein gained more than four percent.
Treasury
secretary Gabriel Makhlouf told Parliament's Finance and Expenditure
Select Committee said the slump was worse than expected.
"While
we anticipated continuing weakness in dairy prices in our forecasts,
there is now a greater risk that prices could take longer to pick up
with the recovery starting later this year or in early 2016, rather
than the second half of this year as anticipated."
He
said falling interest rates and the lower value of the New Zealand
dollar would help offset the slump in dairy prices.
Dairy
analyst with AgriHQ Susan Kilsby said there were some positive signs
in the announcement, but nothing to indicate the expected price
recovery would be immediate.
"The
index prices were down at the auction overnight, but the specific
whole milk and skim milk powder contracts that the NZX Futures market
settles against, those contracts actually rose.
"That's
for product that's actually being delivered in two months' time.
"So
that does indicate we are seeing a little bit of firmness in the
market for the nearer deliveries.
"But
then on the other hand ahead of the auction we saw a flattening of
the NZX Futures curve, meaning that the prices for products [for
delivery] around Christmas have actually come back and it was really
rhe reduction in that outlook that brought the reduction in the
AgriHQ milk price for the 2015-2016 season back 14 cents to $5.50 a
kg of milk solids.
"I
mean, we do expect prices will gradually increase, but it's taking a
while for milk production around the world to slow down and of course
here in New Zealand, we had a strong finish to last season's milk
production as well.
"Things
are starting to turn, but it's taking time for their recovery."
Falling
dairy prices led Fonterra to cut its forecast payout for the season
just gone to $4.40 a kilo of milk solids, while it set a new season
forecast of $5.25.
Other
companies' opening forecasts range from $5.50 to $6 a kilo.
Ongoing
dairy falls hitting rural economies hard - Labour.
The
Labour Party said the ongoing falls in dairy prices were stripping
billions of dollars from rural economies.
Finance
spokesperson Grant Robertson said the price drops meant $13 billion
would disappear from New Zealand's economy over this and next year -
and small towns would bear the brunt.
He
said the country relied too heavily on the dairy industry which was
at the mercy of global trade prices.
"This
is tough for farmers themselves who are going to be facing a big cut
in incomes over this coming year, but it's the rural communities that
rely upon those farmers who will really notice it.
"We're
talking here about a town like Opotiki, in the Bay of Plenty. $30m
will disappear from that town and that means jobs and other peoples'
livelihoods at risks... That's a problem that will be felt right
across New Zealand."
Dairy Auction: Dairy prices slip again
With (quite a bit) of luck Tim (the Gross) Grosser will not get his "trade" deal
Fast-track TTP or lose another deal - Groser
Trade
Negotiations Minister Tim Groser says if the United States does not
quickly pass "fast-track" authority for the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) trade deal, America can also kiss goodbye to a big
trade deal with Europe.
Tim
Groser says the TPP could stall until 2018. Photo: RNZ /
Alexander Robertson
17
June, 2015
Mr
Groser said he expects that, unless Congress gets its act together in
the next few weeks, the TPP will stall until 2018 at the earliest.
"If
they do not provide the package of measures that are being debated in
the US congress now, not only will TPP not go ahead but you can also
kiss goodbye to TTIP, the similar mega-regional deal across the
Atlantic."
He
told the BBC that people will not negotiate with the US if they
believe legislators - in this case Congress - will not politically
back negotiators at the end of the day.
"The
rest of us will move on to other opportunities but the evidence in
favour of the US gaining from trade is literally overwhelming. How on
earth their elected representatives can still be debating whether
trade is bad for the US economy, to me, is simply astonishing,"
he said.
The
TPP deal would ease trade restrictions among the US and 11 Pacific
Rim countries, but has caused controversy as critics believe the deal
could create issues for New Zealand, including changing the way
Pharmac buys medicines.
On the Auckland housing crisis
DUNCAN GARNER: NICK SMITH MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY
Nick
Smith blames the media for his series of botched housing
announcements.
It’s
a pathetic and weak cop-out.
It
is the last of the weakest and poorest excuses as a Minister.
The
buck stops with the Minister. If he’s not up to it – stand aside.
While the rest of us have to make do....
Crown looks to trade in its luxury limo fleet
Family left out in cold after ditching power provider and switching to Globug
A
South Dunedin family is warning low-income earners about
their power struggle after switching to pre-paid electricity supplier
Globug
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.