‘Powers of entry for miners too great’

Press, 7 September 1981, Page 13

‘Powers of entry for miners too great’

Parliamentary reporter A Westland conservation and development group has told the Parliamentary select committee hearing submissions on the Mining Amendment Bill that powers of entry on to occupied land for mining reasons are too great. The Westland Conservation and Development Association, which comprises 94 members and advocates wise development of resources, sought to give greater rights to occupiers of Crown land to impose conditions on prospecting and mining licences, and to withhold consent to entry. The present definition of private land in the act was narrow, excluding occupiers of Crown land from these rights, the association said. Private land should include

lands occupied by any person under the Crown on deferred payment, with right of purchase, lease in perpetuity or renewable lease. “Privately owned or held land (in this sense) should not be made available for mining against the wishes of the owners or occupiers,” the association said. If it was essential in the national interest to mine privately owned or held land, the Governor-General should make a declaration to that effect, and compensation should be adequate to recompense the sacrifice for the public good. Under the bill persons seeking entry on to privately owned or held land for mining purposes need only to give advance warning of application to a District court for an order to do so. On compensation, the association said the act’s provisions were “woefully inadequate.” Only if the landowner consented to a mining privilege over his land and came to some agreement with the mining applicant, did he have a chance of

getting adequate compensation. The inadequate compensation provisions in the bill acted as a penalty on those who did not consent. The association sought an express stipulation in the bill that any agreement between a landholder and an applicant for a mining privilege, must not contain provisions less favourable to the landholder. The provision should apply irrespective of whether the landholder chose to sell up or remain on the property, the submission said. The association also sought environmental impact reports and audits where a particular area was subject to strong mining interest, as in the Grey Valley, and other West Coast areas. The bill provides only for environmental assessments to be forwarded with applications for prospecting and mining licences. Where at present the Minister of Mines may require private or Maori land to be opened for mining if the owner or occupier refuses consent, and a geologist finds

mineral exists in payable quantities, the association also wants an environmental impact report and audit, and the mining to be “essential in the national interest.” It wanted riiining activity to come under the control of the Town and Country Planning Act for land use purposes, with licensing, inspection, regulation and safety only, being the concerns of the Mining Act. If this was not possible territorial local authorities should have greater say in the grant of mining privileges. there should be wider public notification and participation, and better environmental protection. The association wanted rights for local people to visit the mining site to see if conditions of licences were being breached, and to require the Inspector of Mines to investigate their complaints. It , also sought payment of rates by mining companies. At present mining companies were exempt from rates if they did not own or lease the land being mined.