Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Anti-seabed mining bill chance to stop destruction before it starts

From our iwi perspective, seabed mining is a violation of our kaitiakitanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer says.

This Wednesday I will be speaking to the first reading of my Member’s Bill to ban seabed mining. The bill aims to put in place a nationwide ban on seabed mining consents within Aotearoa’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and coastal waters governed under the Resource Management Act. It also seeks to retrospectively withdraw existing seabed mining consents and prohibit the ability for exploration rights for seabed mining under the Crown Minerals Act.

It’s a bill that was crafted from the experience that we have in dealing with the existing legislation and the first seabed mining application in Aotearoa. An application seeking to mine millions of tonnes of iron, titanium and vanadium from 66 square kilometres of seabed for 35 years in the EEZ zone, by dredging up millions of tonnes of the seafloor, extracting the mineral and dumping the unwanted sludge back into the sea, smothering the surrounding area with the sediment plume which would spread all the way down to Wellington.

Since 2011, across National-led and Labour-led governments, Ngāti Ruanui and Ngā Rauru have spearheaded the fight against seabed mining.

From our iwi perspective, seabed mining is a violation of our kaitiakitanga and as defenders of the ecosystems we are gravely concerned about everything it will affect - this is a part of who we were and who we are, it must be protected.

Our communities took to this battle side by side as it gathered momentum. Busloads of us protested at Parliament, the local diving club set up ocean videos so we could quantify the marine life in the South Taranaki Bight and established a proactive education programme with all the schools. The fishing clubs funded billboards opposing seabed mining, the community held fundraisers and concerts to help fund iwi fronting the legal battles. Scientific evidence was compiled alongside cultural evidence, an inclusive fusion that made for compelling and precedent-setting court cases. It’s been a grassroots movement which catapulted my being in Parliament and this Member’s Bill.

Te Pāti Māori’s Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo / Marty Melville

This battle too has taken us to every court in this nation, resulting in successfully winning in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court as the applicant, Trans-Tasman Resources, continuously failed to deliver material evidence of how their proposed project would not adversely affect the ocean. Despite having a decade to prepare scientific evidence they could not provide any, because it simply does not exist.

The opposition to seabed mining has been strong. There were 13,000 submissions presented to the Government opposing seabed mining, with only a handful in favour. We have also delivered a 36,000-signature petition to the Government - it is clear the public do not support the Government’s stance on this.

As Cindy Baxter from KASM (Kiwis Against Seabed Mining) highlights, we already know an enormous amount about seabed mining. The Government doesn’t need an inquiry to understand that this industry would trash our moana. It’s abundantly clear - iwi don’t want it, the public doesn’t want it.

Nor does the technology sector. The argument that seabed mining is critical to the energy transition is nonsense. Most battery makers and industrial users reject these arguments - BMW, Volvo, Google, and Korean battery maker Samsung have all vowed not to buy metals produced from deep seabed mining until the environmental risks are comprehensively understood.

There is a growing global movement to end seabed mining with France, Canada and Pacific nations Tuvalu, Fiji, and Nauru calling for a moratorium, to which, in response, our own Government supported a “conditional moratorium” in international waters.

It’s hypocritical that Aotearoa has supported a conditional moratorium in international waters due to extremely limited scientific knowledge, yet last week would not do the same for its domestic waters. We need to ban seabed mining now, and to delay it sends the message that Aotearoa is open for business.

Our ocean is home to over 90 per cent of life on Earth, it is our biggest ally in the fight against climate change and every second breath we take comes from the ocean. Damage to it will impact the livelihoods of billions and affect our mokopuna forever.

A Government that campaigned on taking strong action on climate change surely has a moral obligation to lead the world away from this potential ecological disaster and stand for supporting my bill.

This risk of unproven technology outweighs any supposed benefits. This Government is prepared to allow us to be the guinea pig, applicants can’t provide evidence, the technology is untested and untried.

I’m standing here as part of the smallest party asking for the support of all parties in Parliament. The Government has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stop this dangerous industry before it starts. This is not the time to cop out and vote down my bill in favour of a weak inquiry.

Now is the time for transformative action for our moana (ocean) and mokopuna (grandchildren).

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, MP, is co-leader of the Māori Party.