Key flays Bollard for ignoring NZ's water and mineral potential

Friday 12th February 2010

Prime Minister John Key today the opening of the world's largest milk treatment plant, in Southland, to lambast Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's disbelief that New Zealand can catch Australia.

“Bollard said we can never catch Australia and may as well give up trying,” Key said at the opening a fourth drier at Fonterra's Edendale milk processing plant, near Invercargill, making it the world's largest.

“The point I think Bollard was missing is New Zealand has something Australia doesn’t have, and that’s water.

“Our desire is to change that. Imagine what that could do for expanded dairying and for New Zealand GDP," Key said.

The country’s water resources far outstripped its trans-Tasman neighbour, with better use of New Zealand’s water was a key part of the government's agenda, he said. 90% of the flows in the South Island currently wash out to sea.

“Once you’ve sold minerals to China it's gone, but with water, it’s with us for a lifetime," he said, referring to the Australian economy's growing dependence on mineral exports to Asia.

Having said that, minerals were another big, under-played part of New Zealand's potential to achieve the goal of matching Australian incomes by 2025, Key said.

Bollard told TVNZ’s Q&A programme that New Zealand should be happy to take advantage of its proximity with Australia, as it’s unlikely to catch up with the wealth and income in the so-called ‘lucky country,’ which is driven by an abundance of raw materials.

But Key said that proposition is open to debate as New Zealand only mines one-hundredth of a percent of its mineral potential.

“Imagine how wealthy we could be,” he said, foreshadowing the imminent release of new estimates of the country's onshore and offshore mineral resources by Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee.

Meanwhile, the government plans to back dairy industry productivity improvements by spending more on research and development and science, Key said.

Businesswire.co.nz

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