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Speaker 1: Are there's surely some ironing in the new fast track

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Speaker 1: system around infrastructure projects rejecting a mining application. So it's

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Speaker 1: sort of what a fast track to rejection the transasman

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Speaker 1: resources proposal. This is to extract fifty million tons of

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Speaker 1: sea bed in the Taranaki region. That's a no go

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Speaker 1: there is they say a credible risk of harm to

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Speaker 1: marine life in the surrounding environment. Now the project, they

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Speaker 1: said would contribute about a billion dollars a year to

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Speaker 1: the economy. Josie Bidal is the CEO of the New

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Speaker 1: Zealand Minerals Council and is with us Josie.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning.

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Speaker 1: You're disappointed or is that life or what?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's a little bit embarrassing actually because it records

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Speaker 2: very quickly up to Washington, VC, where New Zealand had

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Speaker 2: top government officials talking about how New Zellan could be

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Speaker 2: part of a global supply chain and so to do that,

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Speaker 2: we've going to be able to mine, right, and vanadium

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Speaker 2: is one of the critical minerals that the world's after.

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Speaker 2: So this decision, it's a preliminary decision, so I like

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Speaker 2: to wait till the very end to form a conclusion.

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Speaker 2: So I just have to hope that sax evidence and

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Speaker 2: science prevail at the end of the day when the

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Speaker 2: final decisions made.

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Speaker 1: Can we argue that there's mining in those mining Yes,

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Speaker 1: we might want rare earths and we might want to

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Speaker 1: do business with America or we might not. But some projects,

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Speaker 1: it's not a green light for everything.

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Speaker 2: Well, the reason New Zealand is so well received there's

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Speaker 2: a potential contributor to the global supply of minerals is

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Speaker 2: we do it right. We look after people, we have

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Speaker 2: good health and safety and employment, and we have probably

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Speaker 2: the most stringent environmental conditions in the world. So it's

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Speaker 2: not everything is fixible. You can mitigate things. You can

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Speaker 2: one of the mind's weights at dawn and dust to

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Speaker 2: send trucks because little blue penguins are crossing the road.

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Speaker 2: You know, there's a lot of things go on to

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Speaker 2: work around nature. No one wants to hurt nature. But

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Speaker 2: the reality is that people have an insatiable demand for

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Speaker 2: tech and renewable energy and we have to mind some

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Speaker 2: minerals to do to get those going.

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Speaker 1: As far as the process is concerned, I get that

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Speaker 1: you don't like the decision or the pending decision. As

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Speaker 1: far as the actual fast Track bit is it fast track?

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Speaker 1: Does it work?

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Speaker 2: Mining has been particularly scrutinized, so it hasn't been that fast,

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Speaker 2: but it's certainly been faster than going through any other process.

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Speaker 2: It's very, very expensive. It costs millions of dollars, so

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Speaker 2: when you get to know, that's pretty disappointing.

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Speaker 1: I understand that part of it. But we have a

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Speaker 1: better system than we had under fast track. Is that

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Speaker 1: fair to say or not?

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Speaker 2: One hundred percent? That one stop shop is one hundred

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Speaker 2: percent to go And that's what that's why there's international

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Speaker 2: interest in US because we've got this promise.

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Speaker 1: Is this US deal thing you reckon?

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Speaker 2: Real?

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Speaker 1: And if it is, how major is it do you

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Speaker 1: think for this country?

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Speaker 2: Well, we're a trading nation that has to trade with

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Speaker 2: all comers because of where we sit, So we wouldn't

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Speaker 2: want anything that made it difficult to trade with other people.

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Speaker 2: But certainly I know from the phone calls I get,

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Speaker 2: in the conversations I have, there's tremendous interest in North

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Speaker 2: America and what's happening in New Zealand. People have come

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Speaker 2: out here in aut a lock and I think it's

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Speaker 2: quite exciting. I think it's an opportunity. You know, we

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Speaker 2: have to be able to trade where we're not very

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Speaker 2: relevant if we're not producing something that the world wants.

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Speaker 1: That's true. Josie, nice to catch up. You appreciate Josie Bidel,

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Speaker 1: who's the CEO of the New Zealand Minerals Council, and

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Speaker 1: asked the Prime Minister about that later. We've also got

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Speaker 1: the regional lending program problems this morning. We've got half

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Speaker 1: a billion out. They're almost half a billion out. There

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Speaker 1: are chunk of it in that hole. I wonder if

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Speaker 1: we're going to get it back category. I've got dumping

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Speaker 1: of peaches, which I've mentioned on the program before. I

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Speaker 1: didn't realize it was as bad, and they've had an

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Speaker 1: investigation and we've got a problem. This goes back to

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Speaker 1: heinz hawks Bay don't want local peaches anymore, but I

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Speaker 1: was interested to hear her talk about the environment. We

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Speaker 1: don't want to harm the environment. The most important story

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Speaker 1: of the weekend, I think is the green MP whose

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Speaker 1: name I can't remember, who wants to spend some time

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Speaker 1: talking about the possibility of whales being recognized as humans.

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Speaker 2: And so.

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Speaker 1: Fortunately there's nothing else important going on.

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Speaker 2: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it'd be from six am weekdays,

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