For a week at the beginning of this month Sylvie and I spent some time on the beaches and markets around the peninsula, what a treat! On the first day we collected signatures for Watchdog’s petition at Oamaru Bay, then headed to the Keltic Fair. Stunning weather and that classic Coromandel experience: blue sky, refreshing ocean, people on holiday, fishing boats everywhere and HUGE flowering pohutukawa trees.
We headed on to Whitianga & Cooks Beach then were joined in Hahei by some more troops who had been at Prana on behalf of Watchdog! 6 of us were out there the next day collecting signatures and by the end of that week we had over 1200 signatures!
Our petition calls for the protection of the lands, waters and communities of the Coromandel as well as a ban on mining under people’s homes. This is one of the craziest things I have heard in my time opposing gold mining in the Coromandel – mining under PEOPLE! This has not happened in New Zealand Aotearoa before and the hearings in Waihi before christmas saw residents telling their stories of how the impacts of mining have already been heavily impacting them without even going directly under them.
Please make sure you sign our petition to call on the government to stop this from happening now and in the future. Our communities deserve better than a industry that is dependent on the fluctuating price of gold – and so far over 1200 people in just one week agreed with us. Let’s get as many signatures as we can to show the government and the mineral industry that New Zealand knows Coromandel is too precious to mine!
By Renee Annan.
Also see our media release.
You can download our petition here if you wish to collect some signatures yourself!