A Green Party bill aimed at banning mining activity on public conservation land has been drawn from Parliament's ballot, reigniting debate over the future of New Zealand's protected areas.
The member's bill, introduced by Green Party environment spokesperson Lan Pham, would prohibit new mining, prospecting and exploration permits across New Zealand's 8.5 million hectares of public conservation land.
"Conservation land belongs to all of us. It is set aside to protect native plants, wildlife and the places New Zealanders love, not to be dug up for private profit," Pham said.
The proposed legislation would remove what the Greens describe as a loophole allowing mining activity to occur on conservation land under the Crown Minerals Act, despite restrictions placed on most other commercial activities.
"Mining gets a special pass," Pham said.
"This bill is about closing the loophole where mining is treated differently to every other commercial activity on conservation land."
The bill would also require new mining permits to be surrendered if protected wildlife species are discovered within the permit area.
"You cannot say you value our native species and then keep handing out permits to mine the ground they live on," she said.
Pham said she believed many New Zealanders would be surprised to learn mining can already occur on protected land.
"I think most New Zealanders would be shocked to hear that," she said, noting previous attempts to strengthen protections had failed in Parliament.
'Define mining' - Industry groups
However, industry groups have raised concerns about the potential consequences of an outright ban.
Wayne Henry-Scott from the Aggregate and Quarry Association said the sector had written to Pham, seeking clarity around how broadly the bill defines mining.
''The definition of mining under the Crown Minerals Act includes aggregate and sand, it includes pounamu and all sorts of other things,'' he said.
Henry-Scott warned that banning all extraction activities on conservation land could affect quarries used by the Department of Conservation for maintaining tracks, roads and tourist infrastructure.
''At any one time there's 15 or 20 quarries operated for or by Doc for maintaining tracks, national park activities, car parks and those sorts of things,'' he said.
Henry-Scott said sourcing aggregate from more distant sites would increase costs, congestion and carbon emissions.
He also raised concerns about impacts on pounamu access, noting much of the resource is currently recovered as a byproduct of alluvial gold mining on conservation land.
"If they were going to stop alluvial gold mining activities on conservation estate, then it would have severe impact on access to pounamu," he said.
