Roger Partridge: Wellington takes the gold

Winston Peters was in Westport on Sunday, announcing that a future NZ First government would return 50 per cent of all mining royalties to the regions where mining occurs. It is one of the more sensible growth ideas to emerge from this election campaign so far.

The logic is simple. When a mine is proposed, local communities experience the disruption – the consent battles, the pressure on roads and services, the divided town meetings. Wellington gets the royalties. In those circumstances, local resistance to development is not irrational. It is a predictable response to a badly designed system.