Pātea coastline. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The company behind a proposal to mine ironsands off the coast of Taranaki has welcomed the government's proposed bill to fast-track consenting processes for significant projects.
Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) wants to suck up 50 million tonnes of the seabed each year for 35 years in an area between 22km and 36km off Pātea.
After extracting iron, titanium and vanadium, it would discharge 45 million tonnes of sediment back onto the ocean floor.
Chairperson Alan Eggers said the proposed bill still included safeguards for the environment and communities.
"There are still checks and balances in there to protect from any adverse affects whether they be environmental or community affects," he said.
"They are covered off by the minister's expert panel which still needs to look at and apply conditions to any project that's in the fast-track regime."
In a 31 January letter sent to stakeholders, Minister for Infrastructure and RMA Reform Chris Bishop said the fast-tracking bill would be introduced inside the government's first 100 days - before 7 March.
Minister for Infrastructure and RMA Reform Chris Bishop Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"We recognise how important these developments are for New Zealand's prosperity. That is why we are providing certainty and a faster consenting pathway for significant projects is a priority for us."
South Taranaki iwi Ngāti Ruanui, which has fought the seabed mining proposal through the courts, believed the bill was a backward step.
"There is little constraint on the fast-track consenting proposal. Everything becomes open to referral to this new way of consent. It is reckless," said Ngāti Ruanui Tumu Whakaae Haimona Maruera.
Eggers disagreed.
"We have been through the Decision Making Committee process of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) twice and are now finalising our reconsideration for the third time. Those processes set a very high hurdle in terms of protecting the environment and avoiding material harm.
"We have over 109 operating conditions set and a massive marine monitoring programme to ensure we comply with those operating conditions to ensure we do not cause any material adverse environmental effect apart from very localised and very short term in the immediate area of extraction activity."
Ngāti Ruanui, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and other interested parties have, however, successfully argued against the granting resource consents right up to the Supreme Court.
But Eggers was undaunted.
"In the end the Supreme Court came back and said while the consents remain quashed TTR has the opportunity to have these reconsidered by the EPA and remedy any information deficit if they exist.
"We've done that, there are no information deficits and we've provided all that information to the EPA and the Decision Making Committee and that's not finalised yet.
"We welcomed the Supreme Court decision because it sorted out and defined the law and how the EPA's committee has to apply the law and describe its decisions."
TTR had already invested $85 million in its pursuit of consents
Eggers said the project was one of regional and national significance, which would deliver a lot of jobs and revenue for the region and the government as well as enormous export and foreign exchange earnings.
"We have a resource already drawn up and ready to mine in the order of $100 billion and there are further resources out there we can access once we get going."
The EPA Decision Making Committee was expected to convene hearings to finalise its decision in March or April.