Mining interest upsets eco body

High-profile lawyer Rob Fisher should have declared his interest in a mining company that wanted to prospect at Muriwai beach before joining the agency designing Auckland's Super City, says Friends of the Earth.

Mr Fisher was appointed by the Auckland Transition Agency this week to work on the Super City.

Friends of the Earth co-director Bob Tait yesterday told the Auckland governance legislation select committee that is hearing submissions on the Government's Super City plan for Auckland that Mr Fisher was still a director of Westland Ilmenite that unsuccessfully applied to prospect the black sands at Muriwai in 1991 and was still "hovering".

Mr Tait said Mr Fisher should have declared his mining interest because he was now involved in the abolition of the Auckland Regional Council and Waitakere City Council, the two councils most likely to oppose mining of West Coast beaches.

Mr Fisher said his "involvement [in Westland] has been limited to signing the annual return".