“Kia ora everybody, great to be here. You know, one of the things that has driven me for so long is our beautiful land. Our amazing maunga, our beautiful awa, our unique lakes, the precious wildlife that thrives in the forests and the bush, and the many endangered species. It’s recognition of this stunning scenery, the natural world that surrounds us, and the destruction of it elsewhere, that justifies the many areas classed as conservation land. About 33% of our land. These are beautiful places, protected to conserve their biodiversity, and that is important.”

“It’s why this term we treated conservation land as conservation land, banning mining on conservation land, protecting beautiful habitats for threatened indigenous species. Our short term profits should not be at the irreparable expense of our natural environment and the creatures that live in it. Up in the Coromandel, New Talisman Gold Mines was attempting to mine in one of a couple habitats of the critically endangered Archey’s Frog, the only terrestrial frog on mainland New Zealand. Do we really want to rip up our environment, destroying the habitats of land meant for protecting species like these? Of course not. But unfortunately, the opposition parties are too hellbent on profits with little to no care about the environmental impacts. So we’ve banned mining on conservation land, because it is just that: conservation land. The National Party want to do just that, and New Zealand First’ll just let them do it.”

“But even then, there is work to do to make mining off conservation land work better for communities. Despite mining being touted as an impressive opportunity for local communities and their economy, communities are too often left behind. In the short term, these projects can provide great job opportunities for the community. But depending on where the profits go, the long term future of the community is uncertain. Back in the 19th century, Otago harnessed the profits of the gold rush, an obviously finite source of wealth, and used that to invest locally in schools, universities, businesses, and infrastructure, transforming a short term source of wealth into multi-generational benefits and investments for the community. Nationally, from 2010 to 2015, $2.2 billion in royalties from coal, mineral, and petroleum production all went straight into central government’s wallet. Many other countries have mechanisms for directly putting those profits back into the community, as a long term investment in that local economy. We ought to start doing the same here.”

“One of our policies this election is to legally require a proportion of mining royalties and levies to go directly back into the community through the Regional Investment Corporation, to invest in that local economy, ensuring that community can thrive beyond the lifetime of the mining project. With that, put a set proportion of those profits towards conservation and climate change mitigation efforts, to reduce the impact of the mining on the environment. This way, mining projects actually pay back to the community and the environment.”

“But while we redirect benefits back into communities, government mustn’t forget its role as a regulator, not as an advocate of the mining industry. Since 2013, National has maintained the purpose in the Crown Minerals Act as to ‘promote’ mining and mineral extraction, and it took a Green-led government last term to scrap that. Concerned communities ought to know that the government’s there to protect them, not stand against them. For the last decade, MBIE has worn two hats: one of the regulator, and the other of the advertiser. That only ramped up under National and their extractivist programme for New Zealand. So nobody trusts a two-faced regulator. A concerned community will never trust the government if the government are perceived, accurately, as being on the side of the industry. So I look forward to the future with a more independent regulator, who people can trust. That’s just sensible Green change.”

“On the whole, strengthening community engagement and involvement in the whole process is a big priority, along with protecting residents and investing in communities. It’s about putting communities first, not big mining companies. It’s about keeping profits in those communities, not lining the pockets of wealthy Americans and Chinese businessmen. It’s great that we’ve stopped mining on conservation land, but we need to make sure that mining on other land still serves the community and has beneficial impacts on the environment. That’s what a positive, forward-thinking vision looks like for New Zealand.”

the crowd applauded, surprised by the pragmatic vision whilst equally joyous over the government’s achievements in the mining space