Vineyards vs mining: comparing two harms
As the debate over the Santana goldmine intensifies, we must ask: who is really causing more harm?
Opposition from the wine sector ignores the massive social and economic costs of their own industry.
Ministry of Health data estimates alcohol causes $9.1 billion of harm annually in New Zealand. Wine accounts for 29% of all pure alcohol consumed here.
While viewed as a "prestige" industry, its product is linked to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), affecting up to 5% of our population. This results in up to 3000 babies born annually with permanent brain damage. Tragically, much of this exposure happens before a woman even knows she is pregnant.
The financial reality is equally sobering. FASD alone costs New Zealand $4.8b a year. The wine industry’s $290 million in excise tax is a pittance compared to these multi-billion-dollar social harms.
By contrast, the Macraes gold mine has operated for 35 years. It is double the size of the proposed Santana mine, yet has remained a cornerstone of our economy without the catastrophic environmental failures critics fear.
Every industry has negatives. If we can manage the massive risks of the alcohol industry, we can surely manage a new gold mine.
Let’s stop the selective outrage and allow mining to provide economic benefits without the "hidden" costs we already accept from viticulture.
Source of distrust
We know that mining companies may destroy a sacred site, as happened in the Pilbara region. We know they may take a species to extinction.
We know that they have never experienced a major earthquake like the one predicted for the New Zealand Alpine fault, and that rock formations here are not like those in other parts of the world.
We understand that a public road has been closed for the benefit of Santana without the usual public notification. We query if they will carry through on any promises of remediation and if total remediation is possible.
All this eats away our trust in mining companies. But the major reason for Kiwi distrust is our experience of the Pike River tragedy.
We have learned that workplace safety, and lack of action on hazard warnings, came a bad second to the need to make money. No one from the company has yet been prosecuted on criminal charges.
Kiwis do not trust mining companies. They have created this disgust by their actions and inactions.
The tragedy of Pike River will remain with us all, the ongoing sorrow.
Claims that Santana is different are yet to be proved, especially as road access has already been granted without public input.
Nor does their reaction to individuals who question the validity of their project increase New Zealanders' support for the proposed mine.
It happens
Early sewage was simply dumped into streams and was thus mixed with storm water from an early date. Subsequent urban development resulted in the bricked enclosure of the original streams and piped effluent was the next development.
Heavy rainfall thus results in the backup of stormwater into the foul water systems. These sort of rainfalls was never anticipated in the early days.
Councils have been playing catch-up ever since.
Well past time for a home-grown head of state
It is pleasing that Andrew Geddis, an expert in constitutional law, has clearly stated that a simple act of our Parliament could decree that the Governor-General at the time takes on the role of our head of state whenever that role falls vacant.
Over the last few decades our "home-grown" governors-general have shown themselves to be perfectly able to carry out any and all of the tasks of our head of state. After all that is what they are appointed to do.
Many monarchists and non-monarchists (Milton Sperring (Letters ODT 25.2.26) for one) make the unfortunate mistake of assuming that the only alternative to a monarch as head of state is an elected president.
Not so. There are many alternatives. Prof Geddis’ is a good one, which is why I endorse it.
I believe that having an elected president would be worse than continuing with our current hereditary monarchy. Much better to have the equivalent of our governor-general.
Over the years our links with the monarchy have become tenuous. We have become a de-facto republic, ruled by a democratically-elected Parliament. It is time to put in place the legislation that would make that official when Charles’ reign ends.
This suggestion is conservative. The aim is to disentangle our democratic sovereign state from an outdated hereditary monarchy while continuing as closely as possible to a proven status quo which has served us well.
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
