Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Shane Jones: Resource minister attempts to attract mining companies, says he won't surrender to 'woke-ism'
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Resources Minister Shane Jones is on a mission to sell
- 0:02Speaker 1: our minerals on the global stage. He's heading to Australia,
- 0:04Speaker 1: then he's heading to the US. He's attending mining and
- 0:07Speaker 1: geothermal conferences, hoping to push for growth. Chane Jones is
- 0:10Speaker 1: with me this morning, minister, Good morning today. What are
- 0:14Speaker 1: you hoping to get out of this?
- 0:16Speaker 2: Oh, obviously we've got to promote the fact that we've
- 0:18Speaker 2: got a handsome endowment for minerals. They've been hidden for
- 0:22Speaker 2: a long time as various governments have come to a
- 0:26Speaker 2: preoccupation and akst ridden denial of how important minerals can
- 0:32Speaker 2: be to our growth.
- 0:33Speaker 1: Isn't the problem though, You'll say I'm pro minerals, let's
- 0:36Speaker 1: dig it up, and then investors might say, well, what
- 0:39Speaker 1: about your opposition who could be in next year?
- 0:43Speaker 2: The Yeah, the problem that and I've had this discussions
- 0:49Speaker 2: with various other media. The problem that we've got. They said,
- 0:53Speaker 2: if we don't have a strong voice, which I represent,
- 0:55Speaker 2: and it's been absence since Helling Clark's time, then we
- 0:58Speaker 2: all just surrender to the shrillness and the wocism and
- 1:01Speaker 2: it's keeping us poorer. And I think what investors are
- 1:05Speaker 2: warming to is that in New Zealand there is a clear,
- 1:09Speaker 2: loud voice that's standing up and pushing back the tide
- 1:13Speaker 2: of ignorance. And look, if we don't do this, New
- 1:17Speaker 2: Zealand's going to be poorer for it.
- 1:19Speaker 1: You've said we've got strong growth in permit applications. Do
- 1:24Speaker 1: you have any numbers?
- 1:27Speaker 2: Yeah. Sadly, the recent crappy economic figures said that the
- 1:32Speaker 2: mineral sector wasn't doing well, but what it referred to
- 1:34Speaker 2: actually was the decline in oil and gas. Look, there
- 1:39Speaker 2: are hundreds of permits that have been processed. There's virtually
- 1:43Speaker 2: no one who is in a waiting line being mucked around.
- 1:48Speaker 2: I took over the role at the end of twenty
- 1:51Speaker 2: twenty three. I suggested to Envy that all decisions should
- 1:54Speaker 2: be made by myself personally. They promised me that they
- 1:57Speaker 2: could handle it, and they've lived up to their word.
- 2:00Speaker 2: These are not environmental permits. These are permits that enable
- 2:04Speaker 2: you to go prospecting, exploring. You still have to sort
- 2:08Speaker 2: out a land use permit and of course that's where
- 2:11Speaker 2: we strike dock. But TAMA is introducing economic criteria into
- 2:16Speaker 2: the Conservation Act that should accelerate the pace at which
- 2:20Speaker 2: the system allocates land use consents to the extent that
- 2:24Speaker 2: the mining is on dock land.
- 2:27Speaker 1: There's a Utah governor, Spencer Cox I was reading about
- 2:30Speaker 1: last night, who's doing a trade mission here. Have you
- 2:32Speaker 1: met with the governor? And apparently there's eighty of them here.
- 2:35Speaker 1: They're quite interested in critical minerals.
- 2:38Speaker 2: Yeah, and my officials are well and surely engaged with
- 2:42Speaker 2: not only this particular delegation, but we've got in our
- 2:47Speaker 2: mineral sands on the west coast, down around Hokatekula and Westport,
- 2:51Speaker 2: a mineral known as monocyte, and within that mineral are
- 2:54Speaker 2: a host of other incredibly important rare earth minerals and
- 2:59Speaker 2: looked as no order of interest coming out of the
- 3:01Speaker 2: States and various other places. So behind the scenes we've
- 3:04Speaker 2: got our own little global races to who can work
- 3:07Speaker 2: closest with the permit holders in New Zealand. But the
- 3:10Speaker 2: reality is they've got to step up to the plate
- 3:12Speaker 2: and spend their money because we're a free market, open
- 3:15Speaker 2: liberal trading economy, and money walks, some sort of crap
- 3:19Speaker 2: walks and money talks.
- 3:21Speaker 1: Same. Jaine's Minister for Resources with us this morning. For
- 3:26Speaker 1: more from early edition with Ryan Bridge listen live to
- 3:29Speaker 1: news talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or follow
- 3:32Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio