Green Party-co-leader Marama Davidson. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Green Party is pledging to revoke consents for certain mining projects granted under the fast-track regime if it forms part of a government at the next election.
"Today, we are putting the seabed mining, hardrock gold mining and coal mining industries - and their investors - on notice. Your fast-track consents are not safe, and they are not secure," Green Party-co-leader Marama Davidson said.
The Greens have been warning they would revoke consents as far back as December 2024, when the initial fast-track bill passed its third reading.
Then, it was a pledge to revoke consents that "short-cut our democracy, side-step environmental protections and degrade te taiao."
Now, it has named seven specific projects it would revoke consents or permits, even though they are yet to be issued.
"This is a very clear line in the sand, specifically around these most destructive forms of mining. We're committing that we will revoke them, even if consents are issued," said the Greens' resources spokesperson Steve Abel.
Davidson said the Greens were making the announcement before consents were issued to "ensure complete transparency".
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Greens' policy was a question for the Greens, and Labour would set out its fast-track policies closer to the election.
But he indicated that Labour would not revoke consents that had already been granted.
"If you look at what we did with the offshore oil and gas exploration ban, we honoured all existing permits that had been issued."
Panels were currently considering the Taranaki VTM project by Trans-Tasman Resources which would extract up to 50 million tonnes of seabed a year in the South Taranaki Bight, and the Waihi North project by Oceana Gold, which would expand gold and silver mining operations in Waihi.
Four of the remaining five projects (Macraes Phase Four, Buller Plateaux Continuation, Rotowaro Mine Continuation, and Bream Bay Sand Extraction Project) were listed on the fast-track website, while the fifth (Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project) had applied.
While the Greens singled the seven specific projects out, they said any new applications through fast-track that fell into the coal, hardrock gold, or seabed mining categories would be captured by their position.
If a project were to apply through the conventional consent process, it would be exempt, though Abel said it was still the Green Party's view that there was "no future" for these types of mining.
Oceana Gold's application for the Waihi North consent estimated the project would add at least 300 new jobs, while Trans-Tasman Resources said the Taranaki VTM project would create approximately 300 Taranaki-based direct jobs and around 170 in the wider region in logistics, services, and supplies.
Abel said as the announcement was "a pre-emptive warning" it did not affect existing jobs, and he did not believe there was any sovereign risk.
"This government has wiped out thousands and thousands of jobs - 10,000 public servants alone. It's a bit rich to say they're going to claw back a few hundred jobs by destroying our most precious places."
Davidson said the policy would be a priority for any potential coalition negotiations with Labour.
The New Zealand Minerals Council described the announcement as "performative nonsense" and said it would threaten the economy, jobs and investment in New Zealand.
"We need some economic drivers in New Zealand sooner, rather than later, and that is what the projects listed in the Fast-track Approvals Act are," said chief executive Josie Vidal.
"It is disingenuous to suggest that projects that have been approved could suddenly be stopped for no valid legal reason - and certainly no reason based in facts, evidence and science."
The government was currently in the process of amending the fast-track legislation further, with an aim of passing it by the end of the year.
Resources minister - and New Zealand First deputy leader - Shane Jones - said the policy would undermine the rule of law.
"Retrospectively removing people's property rights is a sovereign risk and a constitutional outrage," he said.
Jones questioned why the Greens were not coming out against all mining, nor all fast-track projects, and just this "small handful" of projects.
Abel said coal, hardrock gold and seabed mining were singled out because they were "particularly destructive," in combination with the way the fast-track process had been set up.
"Coal mining drives climate change. Seabed mining is completely speculative and hugely destructive of the sea floor, and gold mining leaves a toxic legacy of arsenic and cyanide-laden tailings dams for generations, long after the jobs have dried up and the Aussie miners have taken the profits," he said.
OceanaGold, which has submitted the Waihi North and Macraes Phase Four applications, said more than 1000 jobs at its two mines, and thousands in the wider community, already relied on hard-rock gold mining.
"In turn, our mines depend over time on a constantly renewing set of permits and consents, where it is always our intention to maintain the highest standards of sustainable management," said OceanaGold senior vice president of legal and public affairs Alison Paul.
"The Waihi North Project and MP4 at Macraes both represent the same combination of economic benefit and sustainable environmental management practices regardless of the process they are consented through."
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