Photo: Supplied / DOC
The government's fast track projects notoriously include seabed mining off Taranaki, but that's not the direction local government officials see the region heading in.
To steal a phrase from movie star Gwyneth Paltrow, has Taranaki pulled off a "conscious uncoupling"?
The Taranaki regional development plan has been launched and seabed mining has been excluded from its key initiatives.
It follows the government's decision to include seabed mining off Taranaki's coast on the government's fast-track projects list... and reflects limited public and political support in the region for the so-called "zombie project". It earns the nick-name due to its potential environmental impact and conflicts with other priorities, such as offshore wind energy development.
The new plan focuses on diversifying the economy through initiatives like biotechnology hubs, renewable energy projects, sustainable tourism centered on Taranaki Maunga, and agricultural innovation.
"Our goal is to say, we can't sit there and wait for the government to make things happen - or wait for others - this is about what we can do," New Plymouth District Mayor Neil Holdom tells The Detail.
"There is a clear concern around the risk of incompatibility between seabed mining and offshore wind development, which Taranaki region has highlighted as an area where we want to see significant investment in and support for in the future."
The government says both mining and offshore wind can be done.
"We don't have the ability to examine that risk, we're not the subject matter experts," Holdom says. "We have asked the government - in terms that we have written to minister Shane Jones and minister Simeon Brown, advising them we have had this issue of the risk raised and asking them to look into it in terms of the policy decisions made out of Wellington."
And the response from the government?
"We haven't had a response.... it's something you learn to deal with, the Beehive marches to the beat of its own drum... we have battled, we have had some wins and some losses, but we just have to keep fighting the good fight."
Trans-Tasman Resources, owned by Australia's Manuka Resources, wants to vacuum 50 million tonnes of sand - every year for 35 years - to extract valuable vanadium, and iron and titanium.
It would suck up almost 180,000 tonnes of sand a day, going 11 metres deep in the shallow waters off Patea.
It could contribute $1 billion annually - although TTR has backed away from that initial figure - to the economy, and create hundreds of jobs.
RNZ Taranaki journalist Robin Martin has long been covering the story, and told The Detail there are definite pros and cons to seabed mining in the region.
He was still surprised it was excluded from the new regional development plan.
"Taranaki has adopted an 'adapt or perish' catch cry as part of a regional development strategy, so I asked Neil Volzke, who is the chair of the mayoral forum, why seabed wasn't on there - this is definitely one form of adaption - and he just said the consensus wasn't behind it, so therefore it didn't make the cut for the plan."
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