Tribunal Asked To Halt Seabed Mine Fast-Track

Monday, 16 June 2025, 6:23 pm
Article: Craig Ashworth - Local Democracy Reporting

South Taranaki hapū want the Waitangi Tribunal to halt a fast-track bid to mine the seabed off Pātea.

Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has applied under the new Fast-track Approvals Act to mine in the South Taranaki Bight for 20 years.

The mining and processing ship would churn through 50 million tonnes of the seabed annually, discharging most of it back into the ocean in shallow water just outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial limit.

Hapū and iwi are seeking a tribunal injunction to block processing of TTR's fast-track application.

The claimants want an urgent hearing into alleged Crown breaches and are seeking to summon Crown officials they say are responsible.

They say the Crown failed to consult tangata whenua, breaching Te Tiriti o Waitangi and ignored a Supreme Court ruling against the seabed mine.

To get an urgent Waitangi Tribunal hearing, applicants must be suffering or likely to suffer significant and irreversible prejudice, as a result of current or pending Crown actions.

Lead claimant Puawai Hudson of Ngāruahine hapū Ngāti Tū said their moana was rich in taonga species.

"If seabed mining goes ahead, we lose more than biodiversity - we lose the mauri that binds us as Taranaki Mā Tongatonga [people of south Taranaki]," Hudson said.

The area was also subject to applications under the Marine and Coastal Area Act - the law that replaced the Foreshore and Seabed Act.

"This is not consultation - this is colonisation through fast-track."

The applicants' legal team, who're also of Ngāruahine, say the Wai 3475 claim breaks new ground.

Legal tautoko Alison Anitawaru Cole and Te Wehi Wright said the Court of Appeal proved the tribunal's powers to require Crown action in urgent and prejudicial cases, when it summonsed Children's Minister Karen Chhour.

They argue the tribunal should be able to halt other urgent and prejudicial Crown actions - such as processing TTR's application under the Fast-track Approval Act (FAA).

The Taranaki claimants are:

• all hapū of Ngāruahine iwi
• their school Te Kura o Ngā Ruahine Rangi
• Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui
• Ruanui hapū including Ngāti Tupaea
• Parihaka Papakainga Trust

Groups outside Taranaki facing FAA applications have also joined, including Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Porou ki Hauraki.

As opponents press their claim, TTR is due to argue its case this week at New Plymouth District Council (NPDC).

Trans-Taman said opposition to seabed mining lacked scientific credibility and the waste sediment it discharges would be insignificant, given the load already carried by the turbid Tasman Sea.

TTR managing director Alan Eggers is expected to lay out his wares to councillors at a public workshop on Wednesday morning.

The company promises an economic boost in Taranaki and Whanganui, creating more than 1350 New Zealand jobs and becoming one of the country's top exporters.

The only known local shareholder - millionaire Phillip Brown - last week was reported to lodge a complaint to NPDC, alleging bias by its iwi committee, Te Huinga Taumatua.

The Taranaki Daily News reported Brown thought tribal representatives and councillors on the committee talked for too long during a deputation opposed to TTR's mining bid.

After the hour-and-a-quarter discussion, Te Huinga Taumatua co-chair Gordon Brown noted it was a record extension of the officially allotted 15 minutes.

The committee, including Mayor Neil Holdom, voted that the full council should consider declaring opposition to TTR's mine, when it meets on 24 June.

Brown reportedly believed the meeting was procedurally flawed and predetermined.

Iwi liaison committees in north and south Taranaki typically relax debate rules to allow fuller kōrero.

Taranaki Regional Council's powerful policy and planning committee recently reached a rare accord on dealing with freshwater pollution, when its new chair - Māori constituency councillor Bonita Bigham - suspended standing orders in favour of flowing discussion.

Ngāti Ruanui has stood against Trans-Tasman for more than a decade, including defeating their application in the Supreme Court.

Rūnanga kaiwhakahaere Rachel Arnott said the Crown should know mana whenua would never give up.

"We are still here, because our ancestors never gave up fighting for what is right.

"Tangaroa is not yours to sell - we will never leave, we will be here way beyond TTR, they have no future here."

LDR is local body reporting co-funded by RNZ and NZ on Air

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