The Government’s assurances of "boutique", "surgical" mining in areas with low conservation value seem to have disappeared down a mine shaft, says Greenpeace.

According to the most substantive poll on the mining issue to date, the Key Government’s mining plans are opposed by 30% of those who voted National in at the last election (1).

Greenpeace is warning the Government it could face civil disobedience and an international backlash if it proceeds with mining on conservation land.

The Government would be wise to chalk up its schedule 4 mining plans as an idea it got horribly wrong, says Greenpeace in its submission on the proposals.

Greenpeace activists have blocked the coal depot of Fonterra’s Clandeboye factory near Timaru, using a truckload of alternative fuel, saying the company is damaging the climate by burning coal when cleaner solutions exist.

A coalition of environment groups including Greenpeace, has announced a public march against the Government’s mining plans on May 1 in Auckland.

Greenpeace says the kind of international backlash seen today in the Economist magazine (1) demonstrates that John Key’s Government is putting the New Zealand economy at risk with its 19th century economic thinking.