Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee told Parliament yesterday the previous Labour government issued 218 permits for mining on conservation land, and accused it of hypocrisy for attacking the Government's proposals.
Mr Brownlee said he had based his comments on data supplied to his office.
"To clarify, I have been provided with further work today which indicates 347 mining permits were issued under Labour between 1999 and 2008, of which 118 were on Department of Conservation land, 100 either overlapped onto the conservation estate to a small degree or were immediately adjacent to the conservation estate, and 129 were on other land," he said today.
The Government has proposed removing 7058 hectares of conservation land from schedule four of the Crown Minerals Act, which protects it from mining, so that valuable minerals can be extracted.
Labour strongly opposes that, and both sides have been throwing figures at each other.
Labour says it never allowed mining on schedule four land, New Zealand's most pristine conservation areas, and says a future Labour government would put back any of it that the Government takes out.
