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Monday, April 8, 2024

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 8/4/24



There’s gold – or rather, energy without carbon – in that rock, but Jones reminds us of the Treaty and an ownership issue

Oh, dear. One News tells us an ownership spat is brewing between Māori and the Crown as New Zealand uses more renewable energy sources.

No, not water or the shoreline. Ownership of another resource has come into the reckoning.

The One News report explained that 99% of the world’s hydrogen energy is generated using fossil fuels, such as natural gas or coal. They are cheap and efficient, but the processes emit carbon which is either released into the air or captured and stored.

‘Green hydrogen’ uses water and is being touted as a more environmentally friendly process. It uses an electric current powered by renewables to split H20 into hydrogen and oxygen. As they’re the only two elements, no carbon is released.

But a third option is emerging — to drill using water and extract hydrogen directly from under the ground.

One News reported Victoria University of Wellington materials engineer Chris Bumby as saying New Zealand could be sitting on a goldmine — olivine rock.

The mineral, which produces natural hydrogen, “underpins pretty much all of New Zealand”, Bumby said.

“Surrounding that, of course, we’ve got areas that are hot and are wet so we have all the things that you would need to generate geological hydrogen.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said clean hydrogen is “a really interesting proposition”.


Resources Minister Shane Jones, a champion of mining, says commercial firms are keen to start digging – but wait:

“Firms who are in contact with the Crown will not move forward until they know that there is a regulatory framework that gives certainly to investors,” Jones said.

And then there’s the matter of ownership.

“Sadly, the officials have acquainted me with the fact that they’re not sure who owns this native hydrogen,” Jones said.

Hydrogen is not included under the Crown Minerals Act and Māori – we don’t need reminding – are keen to laying ownership claims to any resource, including water.

The One News report goes on:

Jones argued that the rocks are “a native hydrogen”.

“I certainly don’t want any of the native hapū with their shapeless claims making it more difficult for overseas or local investors than it should be,” he said.

Good luck with that.

And sure enough, Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is insisting that Māori have rights and interests to “absolutely every renewable energy”.

“That’s our whakapapa,” she said.

Ngarewa-Packer is currently seeking legal advice with a focus to establish regulations.

“Regulations need to acknowledge that the rights and interests of these resources have and sit with tangata whenua,” Ngarewa-Packer said.

But Jones is adamant the olivine rock belonged to all.

“No hapū, no tribe and their interests should trump the need for New Zealand to have an economically efficient, clean source of energy,” he said.

Jones has spelled out his position in a media statement which pleads for our natural hydrogen resource to be free of entanglement in Treaty claims.

Natural hydrogen could be a game-changing new source of energy for New Zealand but it is essential it is treated as a critical development that benefits all New Zealanders, Resources Minister Shane Jones says.

Mr Jones is seeking to give regulatory certainty for those keen to develop natural, or geological, hydrogen in New Zealand as a potential additional tool to ensure energy resilience.


Commercial natural hydrogen production is in its infancy worldwide but it appears to offer advantages over other types of energy production, Jones says.

It potentially has lower production costs and lower full life-cycle carbon emissions than other types of fuel and could be a game-changer for New Zealand.

New Zealand must exploit its deposits of naturally occurring hydrogen to free ourselves on a reliance on fuels from overseas and create a reliable and resilient energy sector.

“The question of the ownership of any natural hydrogen in New Zealand must first be settled and I am seeking legal advice on whether natural hydrogen is considered Crown property under the Crown Minerals Act (CMA).”

Any necessary legislative changes to the Crown Minerals Act would be made this parliamentary term, Jones says.

His statement was one of seven issued since Point of Order last reported news from the government’s official website.

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Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton

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