A three-week extension has been added to the public submission period on the Government's proposals to open some protected Schedule 4 conservation land for mining.The contentious proposal was announced late last month and the initial deadline for submissi
A three-week extension has been added to the public submission period on the Government's proposals to open some protected Schedule 4 conservation land for mining.
The contentious proposal was announced late last month and the initial deadline for submissions on a discussion document was to be May 4.
Today Energy and Resources Minister Resources Gerry Brownlee said ministers had agreed that in "the interests of fairness" the submission period should be extended while the Government completed the stakeholder engagement process.
"Cabinet agreed hui would be held with iwi significantly affected by the Government's proposals. These meetings will be held in early May. It is important that iwi have an opportunity to provide written submissions after the hui, so we have decided to extend the dates for all submissions to 26 May," Mr Brownlee said.
Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson said there had been a lot of public interest in the proposals and the Ministry of Economic Development had received over 14,000 submissions already.
"All will be considered over the coming months, before final recommendations are made to Cabinet later in the year," she said.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Jan Wright this week said there wasn't enough information available to decide on whether mining should be allowed in some currently protected areas.
The areas targeted in the proposal would include parts of Great Barrier Island, the Coromandel and Paparoa National Park.
In her submission, Dr Wright said the Government had not made a case for opening up certain land to mining.
There was a lack of information available about the conservation value of the land, the benefit of mining it and problems raised by the joint access approval, she said.
Dr Wright recommended none of the specified areas be removed from Schedule 4, due to insufficient information, and recommended an ambiguity in the Crown Minerals Act be resolved to prevent land being automatically entering into Schedule 4.
