New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict: Difference between revisions

==The Commissioner for the Environment delivers her opinion==

Not long before New Zealanders took to the streets in force in Auckland on 1 May 2010 to protest the Government’s proposal – an estimated 40,000 people took part in the protest, which “in a country with an estimated population of 4.4 million…was an overwhelming display of public sentiment”<ref>Rudzitis, G., & Bird, K. (2011). The Myth and Reality of Sustainable New Zealand: Mining in a Pristine Land. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 53(6), 16-28</ref> – the country’s politically independent Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, publicly opined that the Government had failed to make a case for opening Schedule Four land to mining. Her official submission on the Government’s discussion document criticised the lack of information available about the conservation value of the land and the benefit to New Zealanders of mining it: “These areas have been set aside as some of our most precious conservation land and before we can even begin to discuss mining it in any rational manner we need a lot of good information which simply hasn’t been made available” said Wright<ref>Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. (2010). Mining plans don’t pass firth hurdle – Environment Commissioner. Retrieved from [http://www.pce.parliament.nz/media/media-releases/mining-plans-don-t-pass-first-hurdle-environment-commissioner]</ref> “The onus … is on the Government to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the mineral values below the land justify the risk to the conservation values above the land. The information contained in the [Ministry of Economic Development] discussion document does not meet this test.”