Thousands say no to mining proposals

CHRIS SKELTON/Fairfax Media

NO MINING: Lucy Lawless joined anti-mining protests in Auckland.

CHRIS SKELTON/Fairfax Media

MARCH AGAINST MINING: Robyn Malcolm and Lucy Lawless join protestors in Auckland in a march against mining.

Protests in Auckland over mining plans

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Actor-activists Lucy Lawless and Robyn Malcolm joined chanting marchers in Auckland for one of the biggest protests in the city for years.

Opposition leader Phil Goff also joined an estimated 40,000-50,000 people marching up Queen St yesterday in opposition to the government's plan to open protected conservation land for mining.

It took about an hour for marchers to make their way from the bottom of Queen St to Myers Park, chanting "they say mine, we say ours".

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said the turnout showed just how passionate New Zealanders were about protecting the land.

Proposed changes to Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act would mean areas of Papamoa National Park, Great Barrier Island and the Coromandel - a total of more than 7000ha - would be removed from protection and opened up for mining.

The government believes the value of the underground resources could be $140 billion.

The plan has prompted protests around the country and a petition that has so far been signed by more than 20,000 people.

Lawless and Malcolm act as climate change celebrity ambassadors with Greenpeace and have been at the forefront of several anti-mining protests to bring attention to climate problems they say will result from the mining plans, especially the digging up of fossil fuels.

"For this amount of Kiwis to turn out and be prepared to speak with one voice, must tell the government something," Malcolm said.

Lawless said New Zealand's clean green "brand" would be ruined if the mining were to go ahead, and future generations would curse the decision.

"I am so proud that New Zealanders have come out to have their voices heard."

Turei said the level of support at yesterday's march was not surprising.

"More than 50% of the country does not want Schedule 4 land mined.

"This is the government trying to satisfy the interests of the mining industry over the interests of the New Zealand public.

They want to sell off these assets to private interests, knowing they will get less than 1 percent of the royalties back, spinning industry numbers about the jobs that might be created."

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