Minister Shane Jones, it is getting increasingly difficult to keep up with your ongoing efforts to justify not stepping into that boxing ring you challenged me to do, some weeks ago.
You know the one. Any time, any place — of my choosing.
Your latest attempt, posing outside our office building in Dunedin like some kind of ringside commentator, happy to talk about the fight, but clearly reluctant to step into the ring to do the business, was particularly telling.
If you are genuinely concerned about appearing in front of the public you should have just knocked on the door.
I would have welcomed you in to watch our team setting up to stream our sports graphics to millions of viewers around the world.
Something we do every week, from this "windowless" room.
Last week that audience peaked at around 20 million, all watching graphics delivered from a New Zealand company in its 36th year of creating high-value jobs, from behind that door. Technology has changed e hoa. But you know that.
You have used this technology non-stop to deliver videos you make in that secluded office of yours up there in the Beehive.
No live audience needed for those.
While you are happy to perform in front of 500 people in a local museum, behind that door you seem so reluctant to walk through, we reach millions of people every week.
We would have had no trouble in getting your views in front of the public, but I suspect that getting an audience was never the issue for you, minister.
This was not about a debate.
For you it has always been about theatre.
Shane Jones, the performer.
Dissing Freddy the Frog, Leo the Lizard and accusing all those "woke, anti-job elitists" as being "a small echo chamber of people who hate jobs, people who pull up the ladder, people who are willing to trade off a minerals rich future for kiwi[s]".
Sweeping generalisations that you seem reluctant to deliver to me, face-to-face, one-on-one.
If this really was about having the debate "in front of the public", then surely the fast track process you continue to champion would reflect that.
But it does almost the exact opposite.
It significantly restricts public access and what opportunity remains, has been further compromised.
In the 2024 Budget, the limited funding that had been available to support public interest participation, was removed.
So, on one side, you have an overseas company spending millions of dollars and years preparing detailed applications, while on the other, you have concerned members of the public with fewer resources, less support and less ability to engage.
You can’t have it both ways, minister.
Under the Fast-Track Approvals Act you helped push through in 2024, there is no automatic right for members of the public to attend the hearings.
All I am proposing is that we apply the same rules to our debate.
Just you and me — no members of the public present, but we’ll stream that debate freely to anyone, anywhere, who wants to watch it.
The proposition for the debate remains: "that the New Zealand economy will benefit from fast-tracking the Santana Bendigo-Ophir gold mining application."
You clearly will take the positive and I will argue the negative.
Seems fairly straight forward, and now that we have dealt with that "windowless room ... hidden behind that imaginary Otago media corner", I am ready to take you on, face-to-face, one-on-one, in front of whatever online audience chooses to turn up.
You are welcome to stream it on whatever platform you choose as well. So minister, no more blustering, no more theatre. Just a simple yes or no.
If your answer remains "no" I will reluctantly take that as a TKO and move on.
• Sir Ian Taylor is the founder and managing director of Animation Research.
