David Seymour sees the huge opportunity the Greenies buried when they opposed oil and gas exploration and argued that mining will destroy valuable conservation land. How hard was it to look more closely at the one-third of our country unceremoniously bundled holus-bolus into Schedule Four conservation land in the 1991 Crown Minerals Act? Some of it is far from pristine coastline, photogenic bush or home to endangered species.
It is a reflection of the very low standard of our politicians that they backed away from an economic opportunity that is historically the backbone of many parts of the country. With modern technology, it is now easier than ever to access these valuable minerals staring them in the face.
“The ACT Party wants to unwind the Government’s energy and climate efforts, with a promise to repeal the Zero Carbon Act and Emissions Trading Scheme, lift a ban on oil and gas permits, and open up “low value conservation land” for mining.”
Seymour calls out the environment parasites, the anti-miners who shut down oil and gas exploration while using phones, computers and iPads.
“The fact is, our lifestyle depends on consuming minerals and energy, and to attack the extraction of energy and resources on New Zealand soil, while continuing to consume them, is hypocritical.”
Environmental parasites have no problem with Australia, Indonesia or Africa supplying the minerals essential for technology, sometimes extracted unethically, while opposing our own mineral exploration and extraction industry.
Seymour suggests Australia’s buoyant economy and employment market is a direct result of utilising natural resources. An economic address to the Australian Association of Mining and Exploration Companies in Perth last year supports his argument.
“The resource sector makes a significant contribution to the Australian economy. It accounts for about 20 per cent of business investment and almost 60 per cent of Australia’s exports. There are also significant spillovers from mining activity to other parts of the economy.
Data on inter-industry linkages tell us that activity in industries that service the mining industry quadrupled as a share of GDP between the early 2000s and the peak of the mining investment boom in 2012/13.”
Why are we sitting on our hands while our own economy goes backwards and begging? The traditionally red voting, historically mining and mineral rich West Coast needs to take a good hard look at the Act Party who are the only political party fighting for a mining resurgence on their behalf.
“New Zealand had more energy and mineral resources then [sic] Australia on a per capita basis, Seymour said.“We’ve just chosen not to use them. You’re talking tens of billions of dollars, in the coming decades … I suspect there are more New Zealanders working in the mining sector in Australia than there are in New Zealand.”
It’s a no-brainer! The Coalition Government have wasted close to $60M re-entering the Pike River Mine, while Act has promised to unlock tens of billions of dollars of economic potential, some of it in the West Coast’s own back yard.
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