A PR exercise

‘Kauri resin extraction a winwin for Ngai Takoto and lands’, April 26, is no more than a public relations exercise presenting an unbalanced opinion as fact.

The issue is of sufficient concern for a minister of the Crown to make an unsolicited public announcement to say that legal advice is being sought to stop this project in its tracks.

This article is best described as an infomercial, and is not responsible journalism. If you are going to publish such an unbalanced report, please label it as such. Most responsible editors will do so.

Contrary to the views of Te Runanga o Ngai Takoto CEO Rangitane Marsden, if you choose to publish unsolicited public relations press releases, I think it is only appropriate that you acknowledge the source. Unless of course the Northland Age is carrying out an agenda to drain and commercialise our wetlands? If that is the case, be honest with your position.

The views of the CEO can be wrongly interpreted that the hapu/whanau is in full support of the extraction/mining in the Kaimaumau wetlands; this is not correct, as there has been no notification, approval, by the hapu/whanau from Ngai Takoto.

They were not given the opportunity to participate in any official forum, as it was non-notified resource consent, rubber-stamped in-house by the Northland Regional Council.