Locals shut out of drilling plans

The man who organised the Reinga Basin hikoi to Waitangi earlier this year said he was shattered by the news that Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges had announced an almost half-million square kilometre increase in the marine area available for foreign oil exploration licences without first consulting the relevant hapu.

"For our local communities, who use the beach and oceans to feed and sustain our families, this means that the potential danger for an environmental disaster has just doubled overnight, and we not even considered in the discussions," Rueben Taipari Porter said.

"Questions are being asked about the marine area for foreign oil exploration being increased, and whether any resources or planning for environmental disaster management have been increased also. I don't have the answers because we were not consulted. There has been absolutely no communication with whanau and hapu of Tai Tokerau, and many of our national contacts had not heard about this increase until TV One asked our opinion.

"The correct response for me to make is to immediately contact my lawyers to seek assistance and oppose this plan by the government to expand oil exploration until the proper process is followed. This, in my mind, is a clear breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi rights.

"Unfortunately, this will force more taxpayers' money to be spent on lawyers' fees and aid, when Simon could have avoided this and simply followed proper process."

The answer was simple - stop the foreign oil exploration expansions and speak with hapu and communities first

Mr Bridges had announced that 405,000 square kilometres of land and seabed, including a barely explored 75,000 square kilometres in the Reinga-Northland Basin, had been put up for tender to oil and gas companies. The area up for exploration off Northland is basically the same block that was offered in 2013, minus about 10,000 square kilometres where Norwegian company Statoil was granted a 15-year exploration permit in December.

The new attempt to entice oil companies has been cheered by business and Northland MP Mike Sabin, who said the industry had brought 5000 jobs to Taranaki and could do the same for Northland, but criticised by environmental groups and the Greens.

The new block offer came a day after the UN released a climate change report warning that New Zealand risked rising sea levels, erosion, flooding and drought if greenhouse gas emissions, caused mainly by fossil fuels, were not curbed.

Mr Bridges claimed that the block offer had followed consultation with iwi, hapu and councils.

Mr Sabin said this was a chance to find out what resources were out there, and to use the information to develop New Zealand's resource wealth. The oil and gas industry had brought more than 5000 jobs to Taranaki while contributing $2 billion to national GDP, $400 million in royalties and $300 million in company tax.

"The same formula can work just as well in Northland," he said.

BusinessNZ also welcomed the offer, saying it showed international investors the country was "open for business". It was also a chance to strengthen New Zealand's energy security, but Far North-based Green MP David Clendon said New Zealand should be putting its efforts into moving towards a low-carbon economy, especially in light of the new climate change report.

"All this exploration of frontier areas might extend the availability of cheap fossil fuel for another decade, but it's a finite fuel. We should be investing in alternatives rather than putting off the inevitable day of reckoning," he said, adding that there was no evidence that offshore drilling, a highly specialised industry, would generate jobs for Northland. And with oil companies paying 5 per cent royalties, New Zealand collected only a small proportion of the profit but carried all the risk to its seas and shore.

Forest and Bird lamented what it called Mr Bridges' "garage sale". Instead of pumping millions of dollars into seismic surveys to make New Zealand more attractive to oil firms, the group said the government should be creating a sustainable economy befitting the country's clean green image, Far North chairman Dean Baigent-Mercer said.