Jessie Creedmore: Buller petition organiser on the growing support to expand Bathurst Resources' Stockton site

Buller residents are rallying behind the district’s biggest employer - Bathurst Resources.

The mine company is seeking fast-track approval to expand the Stockton site, warning operations could otherwise stop by March - gutting over 200 jobs. 

An open letter in support has attracted 3,000 signatures - about a quarter of the district's adults.

Organiser of the petition, Jessie Creedmore, says without strong local support, there’s a risk the application could be declined.

"As I understand, the fast-track process is very rigorous  - I think that people that think that a fast track is a rubber-stamping exercise, that's not correct."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nearly 3,000 people in Westport have signed an open letter
backing a local mine. They're keen on extending mining at
Stockton and Denniston, which is the community's largest employer, and
of course it's going through the fast-track process for that
at the moment. One of the organisers of the open letter,
Jessie Creedmoor, is with us right now. Hi, Jessie.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Kia ora from Bolo on the West Coast. Thank you
for giving us a chance to speak for our community.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
You're more than welcome. Now, what made you feel like
you needed to sign this letter?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Me personally? So I've travelled around a lot. I visited
the South Island about 20-odd years ago and fell in
love with the place. And at this point in time,
I can honestly say that Bulla is a place that
I live at, Cape Falwyn, and they'll be taking me
out of here in a body bag. But essentially, for

(00:48):
me personally, and I don't like to speak for myself
because this is actually about our community, but the world
still needs steel. hospitals, bridges, wind turbines, our Westport flood walls. So,
you know, and I think there's another key thing that
just came out last week. The UN's report confirmed the
world will overshoot 1.5 degrees, and that overshoot will be

(01:09):
decided by China, India, and the United States. So, you know,
between then, most of the world's steel and most of
the world's coke and coal. And our Stockton here produces
about 1.1 million tonnes, and that's 0.1% of global supply. So,
you know, if it closes... The same steel gets made
from Australian, Mongolian, Russian coal, and global emissions do not move,
but this is key to me. What does move here

(01:31):
is the people and the jobs. That is what gets lost.
And looking at the feedback that's come through, it's astounding.
And what I think, and the update is that more
than 3,170 people have signed the letter. And in the
Bullard district, that is one in four adults In Westport

(01:53):
town itself, that's three quarters of the households. And the
feedback resoundingly isn't asking for coal forever. They're asking for time.
They're asking to be heard. And they really aren't bucking
the process. A lot of people agree that it has
to go through that sort of process. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Are you worried, though, Jessie, that without sufficient support from
the community, vocal support like this, the fast track application
might be declined?

Speaker 2 (02:22):
I think that's always a risk. And as far as
I understand, the fast track process is pretty rigorous. I
think people that think that a fast track is a
rubber stamping exercise, that's not correct. It's probably more a
fast track in terms of the length of time. But
the risk, obviously, is still there. And this community have

(02:45):
lived through it before. And we're still, a lot of
people might say, we just need to diversify the economy.
And I'm involved in a lot of projects that we're
all trying to do that, but you can't really diversify
a collapsed economy. So, yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
Well said. Well said, Jessie. Hey, thanks, man, and good
luck with it. That's Jessie Creedmore, organiser of the Open Leader.
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