I listened with horror to Shane Jones speech to Parliament on Tuesday. Here are some excerpts:

‘Mining is coming back. We most certainly need those rare earth minerals. In those areas called the Department of Conservation (DOC) estate, where it's stewardship land, stewardship land is not DOC land, and if there is a mineral, if there is a mining opportunity and it's impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy.”

The reference to blind frogs is to the critically endangered Archey's Frog, found in only three sites in New Zealand One of these sites is threatened by a proposal by OceanaGold to mine the area. The Archey's Frog has survived with little change for around 200 million years but they might shortly be run over by 'progress'.

I feel vaguely responsible for Shane's reference to rare earth minerals. I was heavily involved in getting funding for the NZ Institute of Minerals to Materials Research, located in Greymouth, which has a focus on rare earth minerals (REEs). The creation of NZIMMR massively raised the profile of mining of REEs in New Zealand. NZIMMR was instituted just before the change of government in 2017 (National led to Labour led). If Eugenie Sage had been a Minister when NZIMMR was proposed it wouldn’t have got funded. Now it limps along not doing much of good for New Zealand or humankind, as far as I can ascertain. Good intentions and all that.

Back to Shane Jones:

"We are going to extract the dividend from Mother Nature's legacy on the DOC estate in those areas previously called stewardship land.” 

Nice approach to kaitiakitanga, mate. Almost religious fervour there in your sentiment about the planet being here for humans to exclusively benefit from.

“There's a lot of the neffs going to Australia to dig up their country. I want them to stay in our country and get a job in a legitimate industry called mining."

Neffs? Who or what are neffs? I looked ‘neffs’ up:

Neff: a person with very few outstanding qualities.

Hey, Shane. You could potentially be a neff. You could go to Australia or take up a job in mining.

Neff: an outsider who doesn’t fit in with the rest of the crowd.

I’d like to think Shane is an outsider on this point about mining but I fear he is not.

Neff: to post uselessly in order to increase one’s post count in an online forum.

People do this? I wonder what benefit they get from their increased post count?

Neff: a straight male who hangs out with all the hot girls but never gets anything from any of them (also bestfriend).

No further comment.

I’m trying to visualise the New Zealand neffs currently digging up Australia who Shane would like to come home. Does he want all the neffs to stay here or come back? Or only some of the neffs? Some neffs sound more desirable than others.

I shouldn’t be flippant, however (Catherine Delahunty accused Shane Jones of being flippant in his statements). It is terrifying to have a minister proclaiming the lack of importance of the environment, as opposed to the sanctity of ‘the economy’, in the first month of the new government’s term. Without a liveable environment we will not have an economy in which we enjoy living.

It is also disturbing to have a prime minister who says, “The approach to mining on conservation land will be sensitive and balance economic and environmental interests,” and then doesn’t reprimand a minister who is anything but sensitive on the matter. When I saw the Guardian claiming the New Zealand coalition included two far right parties I scoffed. However, perhaps they were not so far wrong. Power corrupts, apparently instantaneously.