Govt Minning Intentions.

I'm still waiting for a balanced report on it. Okay I haven't been following it in detail but so far it's all been reported as the government saying "we want to do a stock-take", and various environmentalists jumping up and down shouting that this obviously means national parks will be destroyed by mining, or something to that effect. Philosophically I think the idea of a stock-take is fine -- why *wouldn't* you want to know how something's made up for all sorts of scientific reasons? For one thing you can't make good decisions without good information, and right now it seems as if some people want to sing loudly with their hands jammed over their ears just in case discovering that information leads to a public debate they might find uncomfortable. (Maybe this is only how the media's presented it though.) What I'm not convinced of are all the things that are going un-said, and how many decisions and assumptions have already been made. Gerry Brownlee isn't exactly someone I've developed an admiring respect for as time's gone on. I thought last weekend's Sunday programme (see http://tvnz.co.nz/sunday-news/sunday-october-4-mineral-fever-3039553 where you can play the whole 7 minute report) might have been useful... yeah I know I have unreasonably high standards for our local media. Unfortunately all they did was give a bunch of mining people a rainbow-shrouded platform to explain how modern mining footprints are minimal and they wouldn't damage anything. Then the programme periodically injected comments from a single environmentalist whom they presented every time as an irrational raving lunatic.

lol I do like your comments on the environmentalist Izogi and I agree yea "stocktake" will be informative. Its just whats going be decided after that; that is concerning. I just hope the Govt does the usual and procrastinates with many hmmmms, arghhhs and ohhhhs then decides to get back to the ground breaking issues of drivers liscencing age or even another anti- smacking referendum.

Mine the National park then use the extra tax profits from the mining to enhance areas of high environmental importance. That way it is better for the environment and for the economy.

Its not my country, and I'm not sure I have a place to comment. But over here in Western Australia, a small mining accident has resulted in two months of unrestrained oil leak into the ocean, with clean-up efforts shown to be more damaging than the spill itself. Its the first accident of its type in over one thousand operations; a seemingly very small margin of error. However, with the necessary repair and recovery resources not present, an unknown amount of environmental damage has been caused. My point is that despite care, redundancy and all assurances made, accidents will happen and damage will be caused. If a national reserve is not in fact a place where this damage can be precluded, which is the case here in Australia, then maybe some new reserve classifications are in order.

For more information there is an interesting article on the FMC website about this issue and a petition form you can download.