Straterra says get the battle away from miners versus greenies

Posted in: In the News: Wednesday, 26 August 2009

Straterra says get the battle away from miners versus greenies

NZResources.com — 26 August 2009

The new head of resource lobby group Straterra, Richard Michael, said it was important that the minerals sector took its battle above the public perception of a verbal war with the green movement.

Michael, who has been in the job for four months, said the licence to operate should be to show that the advocacy should be broadly based, and the environment was just one facet of public and political arena.

Straterra was launched at last year’s NZ Minerals Conference in Wellington with the objective of providing a strong political and public advocacy that was unified so it fell in with the requirements of not just minerals, but the petroleum, quarrying and aggregate industries.

Michael said that one issue Straterra pushed at its formation was to get a Minister for Energy who would also have the Resources sector, and for the portfolio of Climate Change that was in the Clarke Government, placed elsewhere as it was a conflict.

Not only was that achieved but high ranking Nationals minister Gerry Brownlee also gained the Economic Development portfolio.

Michael said that the quest to have a more unified resources lobby was being pushed and there had been some challenges (assumedly the fact that petroleum lobby Petroleum Exploration & Production New Zealand indicating it would remain a separate entity, while the NZ Minerals Industry Association while taking membership remained separate).

Michael said Straterra needed to become a lobby tackling high level issues and must be an apolitical organisation.

“We are not going to play the political game,” he said.