A Coromandel environmental group has been ordered by the High Court to pay $79,000 in costs to the Crown.
The Wharekirauponga bush in the Coromandel where OceanaGold is planning an underground tunnel to mine gold. Photo: Supplied / Coromandel Watchdog
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki sought a judicial review challenging ministerial approval for the land purchase by Oceana Gold, a company which was granted a permit to mine gold in the conservation land.
The group opposed to the mining, which would see a 6.8km tunnel built under the Wharekirauponga bush, said it would threaten a critically endangered frog species and erode the government's promise to protect conservation land from new mines.
Its application for a judicial review was dismissed in early September and it has now been ordered to pay $79,000 in costs to Crown Law and OceanaGold.
High Court rules mean costs are declined or reduced if the proceeding is in a matter of public interest, but Justice Clark ruled that was not the case here.
"At the heart of this proceeding were Oceana Gold's applications to purchase more land for the purpose of developing additional tailing storage as part of its mining activities at its Waihi mine site," Justice Clark said in her judgment.
"There can be little doubt that the government's policy on climate change is a matter of genuine public interest and public importance.
"Contrary to Coromandel [Watchdog of Hauraki]'s pleaded case, however, the policy was not ultimately relevant and the fact it was pleaded does not make the proceeding one of public importance."
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki chair Catherine Delahunty said the public interest was the need to clarify the interpretation of the Overseas Investment Act in the face of governments and ministers taking different stances on the sale of the land.
"We are appalled we have received this kick on the face around these costs, right on Christmas," Delahunty said.
"I think that there is clearly public interest when ministers disagree and when the Act is unclear and we sought clarification.
"It's a terrible decision in the sense that if you award costs against people who are standing up for the public interest when government can't agree - to be penalised for that is a real kick in the face to a volunteer group that's been working to protect the environment for more than 40 years, and doing it absolutely with blood sweat and tears, so we're incredibly disappointed and appalled at this decision."
She said the group was unsure yet how it would pay the costs.
"We don't have any money, we are having a meeting to discuss this urgently tomorrow but this is a huge challenge for us.
"We can't ask the public to pay for this because we have many people who might want to help us, but they don't want to give money to Crown Law and the mining industry.
"This is actually really unfair and a real deterrent to the public interest in taking cases like this."