Stacey Costello MP introduces Shane Jones.
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones delivered a wide-ranging, 45 minute address to a packed Waihī Event Centre on Saturday afternoon, 6 June about 250 people, speaking eruditely and then fielding questions on mining royalties, fisheries, energy, artificial intelligence and conservation – returning again and again to one theme: that wealth generated in the regions should be reinvested where it is created.
The Resources, Regional Development and Oceans and Fisheries Minister summarised some other themes in the course of his speech:
- New Zealand First will not agree to unfettered migration. It will be for whom we need, not who needs us as a stepping stone.”
- “I don’t care if my words offend the woke-ridden ears of main stream journalism”.
- “We stand and we are pledged to ‘one flag, one people, one mission – an indivisible nation.”
- “We are laden with excessive doubt. We are surrounded by people who tell you why you can’t do anything. It is a “risk-averse culture.”
- “NZ First Party is very tired of the conduct and overreach District Councils. They have gone too far and exaggerated their obligation to Waikato iwi who have a veto on the economy of the Waikato community.”
- Pressed on how the benefits of mining, could flow back to the communities that produce them, Jones was unequivocal. Crown minerals, he noted, include petroleum, gold, silver and uranium – a list with obvious resonance in a town built on the Martha gold mine. If New Zealand First were “privileged to form another government,” a substantial share of gold and silver revenue would be “redirected back into an appropriate vehicle” to be spent exclusively in the local community. He stopped short of naming local government as that vehicle. He could already see “eyebrows arching upwards”, but insisted the money should return to the district that bears the costs of mining. “That is the position that Winston and I have,” he said. “This township is the first place where the fast-track legislation has been used to enable more gold mining here.” Jones later said, “’Mining in this region is a long-term commitment- there is a profoundly rich seam of wealth – much broader than your immediate environment.”
On aquaculture, Jones defended his record, recalling predictions the industry would collapse. Instead, he said, every marine farming permit in the Coromandel has been extended for 25 years, with no need to reapply – something he claimed had “never been done in New Zealand ever before.”
The afternoon’s sharpest exchange came from a self-described keen fisherman, speaking for the roughly 400,000 recreational anglers, who complained of depleted stocks, encroaching trawlers and a lack of social licence for commercial boats working close to shore near Mayor Island.
Jones, a former Sealord chairman, said it was far from certain the current fisheries bill would pass before the election, and agreed there should be a clearer split between commercial zones and recreational areas. But he was firm that his party had never supported the existing protected areas, which he said were “imposed by Labour” and continued by National.
Shane Jones greets the crowd at Waihi Event Centre.
ENERGY
On energy, a question about Marsden Point prompted a case for fuel resilience. Jones recalled the refinery was originally conceived under Robert Muldoon to process New Zealand’s own hydrocarbons.
“Closing down Marsden Point has made us a weaker and more vulnerable nation. We have recommissioned a 100 cu metre tank there. We have begun to recover. Unless we look after ourselves; unless we stop taking for granted the way we live, we can’t maintain this way of life.” Jones said he had commissioned a study into restarting refining capacity. “We have acres of oil and gas” Just over the hill at the Port of Tauranga, we are importing coal from Indonesia, but not far from here there are thousands of acres of good quality coal.” Cautioning against nostalgia, he flagged “options for small bespoke refineries” and signalled the party would campaign on a bespoke refining capability for domestic resources. Against a global oil shock, the lesson was clear, he said, “We have to be resilient and have economic security.” Voters who wanted that should “invest in leadership that will deliver it.”
AI, CONSERVATION & SOEs
He was more guarded on artificial intelligence, calling his party “very cautious about this breathless enthusiasm for AI.” His objection was practical: the proposed data centres would draw enormous power, and “where’s the electricity coming from?”
Conservation drew a longer answer after a question about legislation said to open up a share of conservation land. Jones noted the estate covers roughly a third of the country, mostly in the South Island, and that the relevant bill – under Conservation Minister Tama Potaka – had only just entered Parliament. He stressed that the department’s supreme purpose, set by the Lange government in 1987, remains conservation, though there would be clearer processes for tourism, economic development and, “where appropriate,” mining. He predicted the bill would be “hotly contested.”
His harshest language was reserved for state-owned enterprises. Recounting what he called the worst case he had seen, Jones alleged power company, Meridian Energy (51% state owned|) had paid $145 million, citing a newspaper report, to secure an iwi entity’s acquiescence and speed up a resource consent. The episode, “under Jacinda’s watch,” amounted to “a type of extortion deserving of Tony Soprano.” SOEs, he argued, wrongly believe they are sovereign, and must be brought back under the control of elected representatives.
That frustration with iwi involvement in major projects extends well beyond Waihī. Jones referred to recent weeks working with the Tauranga hapū Ngāti Kuku over the Port of Tauranga’s stalled Stella Passage wharf extension, advanced under the Fast-Track Approvals Act. Reports, and the Minister himself, put their redress sought in connection with the hapū’s opposition at around $450 million, a sum he has called “weaponised cultural extortion” For as long as that Port is not able to expand, they are holding to ransom the good name of the Maori people. It is a shakedown of the country’s largest port. Ngāti Kuku reject that, casting their stance as kaitiakitanga – protecting traditional kaimoana gathering areas – while Te Pāti Māori’s Rawiri Waititi branded his comments a disgrace. Last month the Environment Court ordered the port to compensate local iwi and hapū for the “wasted effort” of a consent process it ultimately abandoned.
New Zealand First has planted itself firmly in the centre-right bloc for this election. Leader Winston Peters has permanently ruled out any deal with a Chris Hipkins-led Labour. Jones added, ”I got the message; don’t ever support the Labour Party again.”
On infrastructure, Jones reaffirmed a commitment to extending the four-lane highway north of Auckland and lamented that building anything here “costs far too much.” His parting shot on power prices drew the afternoon’s biggest laugh: if you really wanted to cut electricity bills, “just sack all the CEOs.”
Shane Jones is holding 35 such meetings around New Zealand between now and the election.
