In setting itself the goal of lifting NZ’s living standards up to the level of Aust’s, the Key Govt has to come up with big ideas on how to do it. Ministers are reported to be beavering away in the Beehive on these “big ideas.” It’s clear the Key Govt will also have to break the shackles holding NZ back. It will have to tackle the Luddite mentality which has become so dominant in the last couple of decades. This was evident in the reaction to a speech Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee made last week when he indicated a stock-take is being undertaken of mineral resources in the conservation estate.

When he first accepted his portfolios (which added Resources to Energy) Brownlee made it clear he was committed to unlocking NZ’s mineral potential. He told John Key one of his top priorities would be to improve access to mineral resources. Nationwide the value of untapped minerals has been put at $240bn of which almost three-quarters is on DoC land. About 40% of this is listed in the off-limits Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act. This resource represents wealth which NZ cannot ignore. It represents one of the “big ideas” for an economic uplift. Areas such as the Coromandel are under-explored, although it has been estimated about $30bn of gold awaits extraction on the peninsula. Gold exports which were worth $600m last year could be tripled if mining, properly controlled and environmentally audited, were allowed on areas of the DoC estate not regarded as pristine landscape.

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Other valuable minerals such as zinc, copper, nickel, and tungsten might be tapped on land which doesn’t have high conservation value. When Brownlee proposes looking at amending Schedule Four, he is inviting a head-on collision with environmental campaigners. Some even say he would be committing electoral suicide. Curiously Labour’s Phil Goff and Chris Carter condemned Brownlee, yet as Minister of Conservation Carter approved the permit for the Pike River Coal Company to construct an underground coal mine in the Paparoa National Park.

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