KEY HAS BIG RAHO - BOLD MINING POLICY -

Yee ha! Finally we have some policy with balls. Pragmatism rocks - literally.

We now have some solid policy around the use of some conservation land for mining.

Now we come from the deep south and we have seen many old mining sites that you cannot recognise today. The land often heals quickly. Granted there are some ugly sites as well but technology has vastly improved over the past century.

Now at the end of the day when all the layers are scraped away we are likely to be looking at an area of about 500ha being mined - Our muttonbird island is about 50 ha so its an area 10 times as big. Its not huge.

We expect the Blue Greens, the Red Greens and the Green Greens and any local body politician who is looking for an easy election plank will be jumping all over this. Mining is an emotive issue.

However done properly we are confident that there will be a net conservation gain - just as there was for Pike River.

And on the same day we find that Key does have big balls he lets them blow in the wind with the announcement that he is going to be pragmatic over the whaling issue as well.

We also think that the Mining proposal opens up huge opportunity for Maori, as much Maori land borders on Conservation estate.

A blue ribbon day if ever there was one.