Taranaki Regional Council is going public against accusations it has sold out to would-be seabed miners Trans-Tasman Resources.
The Australian company has a permit to mine the seabed off Pātea for an initial 20 years, seeking to extract iron, titanium and vanadium.
But Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) can’t begin mining until it gets discharge consents to pump 45 million tonnes of unwanted sediment a year into the ocean.
Iwi and community opponents of seabed mining spoke to councillors meeting on Tuesday morning, urging them to stand with their communities against the proposed mine.
But the regional council wants to hang on to any influence it might have in the Government’s new Fast-track process – and fears taking a public stand might block it from decision-making.
Councillor Bonita Bigham said Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) needed to state clearly what it’s trying to achieve by staying neutral for now.
“I’ve been… attacked on social media [and] in private for not having a position,” the Māori constituency councillor said.
“I’ve been accused of being a sell-out and having been bought out by TTR… I think this is a real risk to our reputation as an organisation.”
Bigham said those in the room – including opponents – understood the reason for neutrality.
“But we’ve got 100,000 people out there who don’t understand why we aren’t saying something.”
As previously published by Local Democracy Reporting, TRC has three likely ways to have a say on the fate of Trans-Tasman’s application under the Fast-track Approvals Act
The council will help pick one of the four (or more) panel members that will approve or deny the seabed mining.
And TRC staff are almost certain they’ll be a relevant local authority and be one of the few groups allowed to formally comment on Trans-Tasman’s application – and on any consent conditions.
Councillor Susan Hughes KC advised elected members to be cautious even in their private lives.
“It’s just a useful thing to remind ourselves that it’s not helpful if we’re expressing opinions we think are informal at a social gathering or something like that - it has the potential for coming back to bite us.”
She advised councillors keep the discussion between themselves “so we don’t risk undermining the effectiveness that we might otherwise wish to bring to bear on behalf of the regional council.”
Council chair Craig Williamson said individuals could have personal discussions to help form their views, but agreed the council would issue a press release to make its position clear.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air.
