November 16, 2017
Time up for Taranaki pipelines
A north Taranaki kaumatua says it’s time for oil and gas companies to clean up their mess and leave.
Haumoana White says his Poutama iwi is calling for a halt to seismic blasting off the Taranaki coastline.
He wants the government to cancel further future permits for oil exploration and start the move to a low carbon economy.
Mr White says the rohe has to deal first hand with the consequences of the oil and gas industry, with pipelines passing through its land and close to its marae.
"There’s thousands of kilometres of that pipe that is actually wrapped in asbestos buried in the ground and there is no intention of ever removing that so their history is no good and who pays for that? It’s the poor people," he says.
Mr White says Taranaki people were promised thousands of jobs from the oil and gas boom but there is hardly a kiwi in the industry and never a Maori.
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