A Parliamentary Commissioner is opposing a plan to give the Energy Minister a say in future mining agreements on conservation land.
The Conservation Minister has been responsible for approving access to conservation land for companies wanting to explore or mine there. But Cabinet has decided Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee should share that power.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, says the change would give mining special treatment.
She says a similar argument could be made that conservation land should farmed, with joint power given to the Agriculture Minister.
Mining needed to turn economy around - Brownlee
Meanwhile, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says New Zealand must mine protected conservation areas because of the poor state of its economy.
Environment groups have derided the plan to remove protection for five pieces of land from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, for the first time since the section was created thirteen years ago.
Mr Brownlee says the Government wouldn't be doing this if the country was very wealthy but it is not, and things must be done to turn the economy around.
He says New Zealand has had five years of declining exports and its economy held together by Government borrowing.
