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Ryan Bridge: There's still too much uncertainty around mining · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: New Zealand First's mining policy hits all the right notes,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: but ultimately it's not really worth the paper it's written on.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you why. On the whole Kiwis I
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: don't think mind a bit of mining on the whole,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: so long as there are good jobs to be had.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: It's in the right place. I preferly not in the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: middle of Milford Sound. Last year the government took in
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: more than two hundred and fifty million bucks in royalties
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: alone from mining. But there was a poll we spoke
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: about this pole just a few weeks ago on the program.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Half of voters don't think that we get a good
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: enough deal, a fair enough return from those mining companies.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: So to fat pacify this problem, New Zealand First wants
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to give half the royalties back to the regions where
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the resources come from. It might get them blue collar
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: votes on the coast, but it won't fix the big
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: problem we have, which is investor confidence. If you're an
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: international player with options and a world in front of you,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the disruption, the civil disobedience, the political uncertainty on display
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: here don't go unnoticed. It's all very well having these
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: pro mining policies and fast tracks. But if they the
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: threat of a Labor Greens government hangs over your permits,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: what are they really worth? Prospectors have just been given
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: a reminder of this in New South Wales, a state
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that was built on coal. Despite it being one of
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the state's top exports twenty three billion in exports, twenty
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: four thousand jobs, two point seven billion in royalties, the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Labor government there is banning new mines. Sound familiar, much
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like the Labour Greens Just Transition for jobs in Taranaki.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Labour New South Wales has invented the Future Jobs and
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Investment Authority to magic up replacement roles for miners in
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the Hunter Central West Coast, Illawarra and Northwest. You'll remember
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: how well that went for us here in New Zealand,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the Just Transition. The irony of all of this is
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: that the Workers' Union doesn't like it. They've called out
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Labour's move and here that's led to them backing parties,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: probably like New Zealand first on the coast. Ultimately, it's
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: all rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Because to
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: have jobs you need investment. To have investment, you need certainty,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: and to have certainty you need bipartisanship, which we don't have.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to News Talks at B from five am weekdays, or
• 2:29
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