September 04, 2013
Mining promises false hope
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Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the Government is trying to spread false hope among Maori with its promise of jobs from mining and oil drilling.
Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges has released a report saying that over the past decade employment in the petroleum and minerals sector has more than doubled and exports tripled.
He says this summer the oil industry is expected to spend more than $600 million, with 13 exploratory wells being drilled offshore and 27 onshore.
Ms Turei says there are only 6000 jobs in the mining industry, and any expansion comes with significant environmental risk.
"We have false hope in this rhetoric that mining is going to bring all these jobs. We know that mining companies that come here are largely international, they bring their own experts, they bring their own workers, they do the processing offshore, there are very few jobs in mining in New Zealand, and yet it is being sold to Maori as a way to get buy-in from a community that is absolutely desperate for jobs, particularly in the regions," she says.
Ms Turei says Simon Bridges is trying to block the public out of having a say on offshore exploratory drilling, which poses a huge risk to the environment.
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