One has to wonder about the motivations of some people. Ardern and her neuron-free generational-moment ban on oil and gas exploration; Sage and her ban on jobs and regional development for Waihi; and iwi objecting to progress in Gisborne.
Fortunately, the Minister for Provincial Largesse is having none of it. Gisborne desperately needs space at their wharf for two log ships to be docked and loaded simultaneously. There is a wall of wood which has to be exported bearing down on the port in the next few years.
Jobs and livelihoods depend on the continued success of the timber industry around Gisborne.
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has blasted a hapu in Gisborne for its opposition to the expansion of the region’s main port.
Speaking to the Herald, Jones went as far as saying representatives from Ngati Oneone need to go to the local brain research centre as “they obviously need help”.[…]
Jones told the Herald today that he was “thoroughly hacked off that the application to extend Gisborne’s Port had been undermined by local hapu”.
Gisborne Port operator Eastland Group has been looking to expand for a decade but the plan has been met with opposition from Ngati Oneone.
An appeal to the port’s expansion has delayed work but mediation between the parties involved is now under way.
But Jones was far from impressed with Ngati Oneone’s opposition.
“I think what I’ll do when I go to Gisborne, I will ask the brain researchers to meet with the hapu – they obviously need help.”
Jones was referring to the Gisborne’s new Matai Medical Research centre, which was provided $6 million through the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) this morning.
It focuses on “traumatic brain injuries”.
Jones said the Ngati Oneone’s opposition to the Port’s expansion was standing in the way of greater employment opportunities in the region and that the Resource Management Act (RMA) has become a “plaything for hapu mischief-makers”.
“Hapu activists cannot be allowed to get a free pass in this type of concern.
“We’re never going to develop in a broad sense these regions if we don’t improve our infrastructure.” […]
A Newspaper