SHANE JONES
Jones's Checkered History with Renew Energy Limited
NZ First’s Shane Jones has a long history with SIRRL’s NZ shareholder company, Renew Energy Limited (REL). In 2017 Jones gave REL $350,00 from the Provincial Growth Fund for a West Coast waste-to-energy feasibility study. However, it was revealed that the funds came just two days after Jones was warned by the Environment Ministry that the project did not stack up economically or environmentally.
Jones initially denied receiving the ministry’s concerns, but said even if he had been aware of their position, it wouldn’t have changed a thing.“It makes not one jot of difference to me – a feasibility study should be able to flush all such information out,” “And if the thing dies as a consequence of a feasibility study that’s why the private sector should do feasibility studies.”
Pablo
National’s economic development spokesperson at the time, Paul Goldsmith, said Mr Jones’ cavalier attitude to public money was disturbing, accusing him of throwing money around like the drug lord Pablo Escobar. “It’s a sad indictment of the way that Mr Jones is going about the Provincial Growth Fund – There’s no clear process that we can see from the outside, it’s slap-dash and they’re making mistakes that they shouldn’t be making.”
However, it gets worse. After claiming he knew nothing about the Ministry for the Environment’s advice, some public servants got in touch with RNZ and provided an email trail showing their minister was fully briefed by his official John Doorbar and he knew full-well experts considered the project a lemon.
Mr Jones said he genuinely just forgot all about it, “Obviously so busy and so many things floating around in the square head that I overlooked that one.”
COULD IT GET ANY WORSE? Well, it does! Jones was forced to retract the funding after RNZ revealed that REL founder, managing director and major shareholder, Gerard Gallagher was being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on several counts of corruption.
A later inquiry into the funding fiasco showed that SIRRL director and then REL director Kevin Stratful neglected to disclose the SFO investigation into Gallagher when applying for the funding. The report also disclosed that MBIE had failed to do any due diligence on the applicant.
The Manahau Barge Fiasco
Manahau Barge under the West Coast Bulk Logistics banner, stranded on Carters Beach. Image Facebook/Paul Razz
Coastal Shipping Initiative Program Fund
In 2022, WMS Group was awarded a share of $7m from the government’s coastal shipping initiative Program. WMS used these funds to acquire a 98m barge which the company said would be used to transport mineral sands from the West Coast ports to awaiting offshore freighters. WMS also claimed the barge would provide the West Coast with resilience and jobs.
Barging Waste
SIRRL and REL director Paul Taylor was asked in a recent short film by Frank Films if importing waste was an option. His response was no.
Taylor was also asked in a North & South magazine article if SIRRL would import waste. Taylor’s response: “We would never embark on a plant if we thought that we were likely to have to import waste.”
In 2018, SIRRL’s NZ subsidiary shareholder Renew Energy Ltd (REL) proposed a W-t-E plant for Westport on the West Coast of the South Island. When asked, why Westport? Then operating manager David McGregor said, “because it’s near a port for the importation of waste from Australia and the Pacific Islands.”
Around the same time, REL had discussions with the Marlborough District Council. Renew proposed barging waste from Marlborough and perhaps further, to the site of the proposed Westport plant. They also had plans to incinerate grape marc (the waste material from wine production), and broken tanalised posts from vineyards.
Renew shareholders Leonard Hugh Grey, Robert Bruce Grey, and Paul Donald Le Gros, among others, are involved in the wine industry.
The Power Of Wind
Jones on hand to herald the arrival of the Manahau barge into Westport. Media: Facebook/Shane Jones
In the above video, as the Manahau sounds its arrival with its foghorn, Jones on the banks of the Westport River can be heard saying, “That is the siren of success, for the Coast and the mining industry.” Jones can also be heard saying that Manahau translates to “something of prestige or the power of wind”. A short time later, after an extensive refit and refurbishment, the barge washed up on a West Coast beach. The barge had been moored off the coast before being blown free and stranding on Carter’s Beach. It was eventually refloated and towed to its current mooring at the Port of Nelson, where it has been for over a year. Some success story!
Despite being promoted as a means of bringing employment to the region, the barge was entirely manned by an inexperienced overseas crew.
The incident raised safety concerns from Maritmie New Zealand and also resulted in criticism of WMS following the company’s attitude and actions in blocking a union from meeting with the barge’s crew members, which led the union to threaten legal action.
Connecting REL and West Coast Mining
WMS Chair Duncan Hardie, Shane Jones and WMS Managing Director Ray Mudgway aboard the Manahau. Image: Facebook/Shane Jones
Renew Energy shareholders Leonard and Robert Grey have interests in mining. The Greys are shareholders of TiGa Minerals and Metals and Barrytown Resources Limited. Both of these companies are involved in controversial mining projects on the West Coast of the South Island.
Leonard Grey is also a shareholder and director of West Coast Mineral Sands (WMS Group). WMS Group is made up of Westland Mineral Sands, which operates a sand mining company in Cape Foulwind near Westport, and West Coast Bulk Logistics Ltd.
Along with Leonard Grey, West Coast Regional Council councillor and Renew Energy shareholder, Mark McIntyre is also a shareholder of another WMS Group subsidiary company, WMS Group Land co.
Jones's Cosy Relationship With The Mining Industry
Image: Facebook/Shane Jones
On 23 May 2024, Shane Jones delivered a speech at the Blackball Community Hall and unveiled the government’s draft minerals sector strategy. Jones’s speech was followed by an undisclosed lunch with mining executives, including: Francois Tumahai (Ngāti Waewae and Bathurst Resources), Richard Tacon and Fiona Bartier (Bathurst Resources), Alison Paul (Oceana Gold), Patrick Phelps (Minerals West Coast), Lincoln Smith (Terra Firma Mining), Phil McKinnel (Birchfield Coal Mines), Mike Meehan (New Zealand Institute for Minerals and Materials Research), Robert Brand (TiGa Minerals and Metals) and Simon Delander (Federation Mining).
Two of the representatives, Federation Mining’s Vice President Simon Delander and Richard Tacon, Chief Executive of Bathurst Resources, also attended a private dinner with Jones and Stevenson Mining Group Deputy Chair Barry Bragg on the West Coast in February 2024.
Jones failed to record the dinner in his ministerial diary until after Newsroom asked questions about it.
Along with the unpublicised lunch, Jones made two undisclosed mine visits while on the West Coast. These included: Federation Mining’s Snowy River gold project, near Reefton, and Roa Mining’s Rajah open-cast coal mine north of Greymouth. Jones’s only pre-publicised engagement on the West Coast that day was his speech at Blackball.
TiGa Minerals and Metals, Bathurst Resources and Stevenson Aggregates (a subsidiary of Stevenson Mining) have gone on to have projects included in Shane Jones’s Fast-track process.
Westport and Greymouth Ports
WMS Group
WMS Group (Westland Mineral Sands) is a mining and logistics company with operating licenses for thousands of hectares of sand dunes on the West Coast, with mineral deposits obtained using surface mining.
WMS Group subsidiary company West Coast Bulk Logistics Limited (WCBL) also leases and operates the ports of Greymouth and Westport.
Three Years Into Lease, No Wharfage Income was Received From WMS Group.
In August 2020, WCBL signed a 30-year contract to lease part of Westport Port from the Buller District Council.
The Westport News reported the council expected to receive $25.2 million in port income between 2021 and 2031. But, in February – more than three years into the lease – former chief financial officer Douglas Marshall said the council had not yet received any wharfage income from WMS Group.
The council has refused to say how much rent or wharfage it has received since, citing commercial sensitivity.
A Time To Talk Rubbish?
Image: Facebook/Coasters Club
The above photo was taken at the Speights Ale House in Greymouth on 16 July 2019. REL’s Kevin Stratful sits at the head of the table. This was four days before Stratful announced his initial resignation from Development West Coast and just days before Kevin Stratful and Westland mayor Bruce Smith presented a Hokitika W-t-E pitch to 500 residents at the Hokitika Theatre on 25 July 2019. It was also after REL had lodged a resource consent application to stockpile 132,000 tonnes of waste on the edge of Reefton, and three months after Buller mayor Gary Howard (also present in photo) had faced a vote of no confidence from his council after it was revealed the mayor had signed W-t-E agreements without his council’s knowledge while on a REL-hosted W-t-E tour in China.
Two years prior to this lunch, Kevin Stratful had embarrassed Shane Jones by failing to disclose that his fellow REL director, Gerard Gallagher, was being investigated by the SFO when making REL’s Provincial Growth Fund application.
Also in attendance are Grey mayor Tony Kokshoorn, Westland mayor Bruce Smith, and West Coast Regional Councillors.
Do you think REL’s W-t-E proposal was on the lunch menu?
NZ First position on W-t-E
In 2023 the NZ First party included the following two policy points in its manifesto;
- Develop a nationwide WtE strategy, and
- Urgently halt all new landfills in NZ.
So, what moves has Jones and the government taken to action these policies? Well, it seems the only move of note is adding SIRRL’s WtE project to the Fast Track, while denying a similar WtE project by Global Contracting Solutions proposed for Te Awamutu.
The inconsistency is exacerbated by the inclusion of new landfill projects in Fast-Track, showing this platform really is a free-for-all.
In March 2025, NZ First leader Winston Peters and deputy leader Shane Jones were contacted with a list of questions related to NZ First’s 2023 policy manifesto, in particular, ‘The nationwide WtE strategy’ and ‘Urgent halting of all new landfills in NZ’. This request was bumped onto party president Julian Paul. who initially said “ New Zealand First has not progressed any of those policy points as they are not in the coalition agreement and we do not have the relevant ministerial portfolio to advance these points.”
This seems rather weak considering that Jones is using his ministerial influence to progress SIRRL’s WtE project through Fast Track.
Paul also said he would respond to the questions in more detail in due course. Despite several requests for more detail, Paul has not responded.
The Fast Track inconsistencies, the reluctance or inability to provide any details regarding its proposed WtE and landfill strategies, and the exclusion of these policy points from the coalition agreement raise the questions: why was this so-called WtE policy point included in NZ First’s 2023 policy manifesto? And was it simply added at the request of REL?
Jone's 2024 trip to Singapore
In October 2024, Jones travelled to Singapore. His travel report shows he met with Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister GAN Kim Yong and Minister in charge of trade relations Grace FU. Discussions relating to the following were listed; food security, supply chain resilience, investment, and energy policy.
The report states that Jones also met with a range of Temasek portfolio companies, including Keppel Group, Olam, SATS, ST Engineering, PSA Group and Keppel Seghers. He also met with energy shipping giant BW Group, the chairman of the Singapore Stock Exchange, and sovereign wealth fund GIC.
Included in Jones’s visits were the Tua’s Port, ST Engineering dry dock facilities and Keppel Seghers Waste to Energy plant. The purpose of these visits was said to be ‘to observe the scale and technology of existing infrastructure projects in Singapore’.
ST Engineering is a defence and engineering firm that supplies weapons, ammunition, and battlefield mobility systems like military vehicles. They also provide maintenance, repair, and overhaul services for defence platforms, build naval vessels, and develop cybersecurity and satellite communications equipment for governments and armed forces globally.
Although STE placed its Israel subsidiary company ST Engineering (Israel) Smart Cities Ltd, into liquidation in November 2022, STE does still partner with Israel Aerospace Industries under the company Proteus Advanced Systems Pte Ltd, in developing and marketing advanced naval missile systems for sale to third-party countries.
ST also supports the waste-to-energy sector by designing, building, operating, and maintaining integrated waste management facilities like the Tuas Nexus W-t-E incinerator.
Images: Facebook/Shane Jones
Fast-track
Despite REL’s dubious history and Stratful and REL’s 2017 embarrassment of Jones, In 2024, REL and SIRRL were once again given a leg-up by Jones, this time onto a dodgy fast track platform, even though SIRRL’s fast track application lodged again by Mr Stratful, was full of mistakes, false information and once again failed to disclose REL’s history, this time it’s illegal storage of waste. So how did SIRRL get itself on the Fast-track list?
CONVERGENCE
Since 2021, SIRRL has employed the services of PR company Convergence Communications. Why the need for a high-profile public relations firm?
Damage Control
Whether it be a serious workplace accident, a faulty product, or a social media campaign threatening your reputation, Convergence says it has the expertise and experience to help you recover with your reputation intact. The company boasts of having worked behind the scenes of many high-profile New Zealand crises, including work for Pike River Coal following the tragic mining disaster in 2010.
Government Lobbying Specialists
Convergence prides itself on having the skill set to lobby government with a full-time, Wellington-based government relations specialist and another based in Auckland.
Convergence sells itself as an approved professional services provider to the New Zealand government and is featured on the All-of-Government (AoG) PR Consultancy Panel.
Convergence says: ‘If you want the country’s decision makers and influencers to know what your business is doing, or you are trying to achieve change in central, regional or local government policy, we can help to get your message across.’
Convergence also has firsthand experience in the mining industry. Co-owner and managing partner Leigh Justine Harris along with Renew Energy Limited shareholders Leonard Hugh Grey, Robert Bruce Grey, and Dianne Rosalie Hansen are all shareholders of Australian mining company TIGA Minerals and Metals (TIGAMM).
TIGAMM (also listed as a Convergence client), also made the list of organisations shoulder-tapped by the government for fast-track consent. Also making the list is West Coast mining company WMS Group, of which Leonard Grey is also a shareholder, and several projects by Carters Group, which Convergence also represents.
Recurring Pattern
As we see, aside from REL, there is another recurring pattern running through this decade-long saga: Shane Jones and his penchant for resurrecting REL’s roadkill projects.
As long as the likes of Jones are in positions to continually help REL by providing dodgy platforms, legislative leg-ups, and questionable funding. And SIRRL’s mouthpiece has direct access to the government’s ear to spruik its proposals and have them circumvent RMA process because they likely wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny, then other small towns will likely have to endure these recidivist pests just as Westport, Reefton, Belfast, Hokitika and Waimate have.