File photo. Protesters demonstrate beside a prospecting vessel in Taranaki. Photo: Kiwis Against Seabed Mining / Facebook
Environmental lobby group Kiwis Against Seabed Mining has panned the government's decision to set up an inquiry into the controversial practice, while mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has welcomed the move.
Environment Minister David Parker on Friday said a select committee inquiry would investigate seabed mining regulations in New Zealand waters and the pros and cons of the controversial practice.
At the same time, he said the Labour Party would not be supporting Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer's Member's Bill banning seabed mining altogether.
Its first reading is due in Parliament next week.
KASAM spokesperson Cindy Baxter said the inquiry was a waste of time.
"We've had three failed applications, three court cases. The government doesn't need any more information and the public is against it.
"And now this has delayed any decision on seabed mining for a much longer time. We need a ban now."
Baxter said the Supreme Court made a really strong decision when it quashed the Environmental Protection Authority's consents allowing Trans-Tasman Resources to mine in the South Taranaki Bight.
"That decision really set some very clear parameters around which you should look at seabed mining. Is it going to cause material harm and if it does can it be remediated? Otherwise it shouldn't go ahead."
She was clear those parameters could not be met.
"We know that digging up 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 35 years and dumping 45 million tonnes back onto the seabed will wreck the South Taranaki Bight, there's no question about that.
"We just need the government to draw a line in the sand and just ban it - that would be by far the best thing to do and it's what the community wants, it's what the fishing industry wants, it's what tangata whenua wants, it's what people who love the ocean right up the coastline want. Nobody wants it.
"It's time for a ban, not just more talk."
Trans-Tasman Resources wants to extract 5 million tonnes of iron, titanium, and vanadium a year from the seafloor.
Executive chairman Alan Eggers welcomed the government's decision.
"This gives us a chance politically to expound the benefits of seabed mining and that it is sustainable and that the environmental impacts are very low to negligible.
"It gives us a chance to put the facts in front of the politicians which we haven't had the opportunity to do in the past."
Eggers also welcomed the announcement that Labour would not be supporting Ngarewa-Packer's Member's Bill.
He said TTR would have a very low carbon footprint, producing green steel and recovering vanadium required for the transition to a green economy.
"It's good news for the wider industry in New Zealand and I think the government is finally taking notice."
Eggers said TTR proposal for the South Taranaki Bight was back with the EPA and it had appointed a new Decision Making Committee to reconsider its application for marine and discharge consents.
"I imagine these two things will run in parallel. Our process with the EPA will continue and the select committee will undertake its inquiry."
Eggers said TTR's proposal would generate a spend of $250 million in Taranaki annually creating 300 jobs directly in the region and 1600 further positions nationwide while earning the government about $200 million annually in royalties and taxes.
Phil McCabe of KASAM said the government's announcement was at odds with its international stance.
"New Zealand has preceded the rest of the world in scrutinising this destructive activity, reflecting that experience in its policy for a 'conditional moratorium' in international waters, joining a growing collective of countries in the Pacific and the world in working to stop the destruction before it starts."
McCabe cited Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta announcement in October of New Zealand's conditional moratorium position on international seabed mining, in which the minister noted scientific knowledge of the area, irreversible changes to the environment and "significant impacts on its biodiversity".
"We know that strip mining the ocean floor is unacceptably destructive, we know New Zealanders don't want it, why is the government vacillating and wasting valuable time and energy in yet another process?"