Guest Post: Marty Gibson, UF Regional Spokesman, Gisborne/East Coast
June 20 4:19 PM
AUTHOR:
Read below for an op-ed Marty wrote for the Gisborne Herald on Petrobas and offshore prospecting. Great thinking, great writing.
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HERE was a much nicer tone at Thursday night’s “What Lies Beneath?” meeting to discuss the gas and minerals that might lurk in and around the East Coast.
It was good to have the exploration advocates here face to face, allowed to put their case forward to some of those who have been protesting against the Government’s done deal with Petrobras for prospecting rights in the Raukumara Basin.
It was a shame Greenpeace’s “climate change campaigner”, musician Steve Abel couldn’t make it.
Many of those Greenpeace-type folks who fired up the locals and sabotaged the initial survey are not keen on any big industry other than protesting, so where does that leave us as a region?
To read Greenpeace’s New Zealand website is to experience the “oppressive father” complex, which gives some folks the urge to find victims they can herd and defend from what they perceive as patriarchal authority.
“Stop climate change!” it demands. “Stop fossil fuels!” “Stop nuclear power!”
All would be nice, all are impossible right now, without a Pol Pot solution including massive world depopulation.
“Give us money by direct credit!” zealous young Greenpeace collectors periodically demand of the folks on Gladstone Road who struggle to pay power bills rising thanks to the global climate taxes cheered on by New Zealand actors on behalf of Greenpeace.
They offer no practical alternatives to coal, gas, oil and nuclear power because their buzz is to sensationally point out problems, not offer solutions.
I’m not necessarily pro-drilling or pro-mining but I appreciate their benefits every day, as do all the protesters.
With my degree in geology, and work experience that includes plastics engineering and setting up and running a big quarry, I could be mining up a storm in Perth by the end of next week.
Although I would make much more money than I do here, this is my home, and my family have lived peacefully and worked hard here for eight generations.
I love our bush and ocean, but know they are not pristine. I worry about the spiritual, social, economic and environmental health of our region — and it takes more than slogans, bad information, and doing nothing to find solutions.
It is understandable that ahi kaa Maori feel left out of the process, but their lawyers and leaders must have known about it, because the people who objected to their claims being absorbed by runanga asked them why they had signed a deal that said nothing about mineral wealth.
Rather than forming an orderly herd of victims, why don’t we ask what’s in it for us and soberly consider the point at which it might be worth it?
How about if it funded biofuel development? If every river bank and gully in the district was planted, reducing erosion and improving kaimoana on the coast? If mills could be built to process the district’s pines here? If more predator-proof mainland islands were made to preserve our native ecology? What if it meant a government department and its $100,000+ jobs moved here?
Our leaders did not champion any such arguments, but the message the professional protesters gave Petrobras on our behalf was: “Go Away!” which is as bad as our leaders’ message of “Do what you want!”
Faced with the expensive interruption of their survey Petrobras justifiably said to the Government: “You encouraged us to invest in this area and we did so in accordance with your laws and brochures; these people don’t have their facts right, are you going to enforce the law or what?”
So the navy turned up.
Being herded and defended ain’t necessarily the same as being empowered to exercise mana motuhake.
- Marty Gibson