Glad protesters keep raising Rocket Lab issues

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Good on ya Merv Goodley — reliable in your responding, but head counts at meetings don’t make consensus. I can’t remember when Rocket Lab last had a public meeting. With unfettered access and a BAU (business as usual) “nothing to see here” approach, they no longer bother about public engagement — not to mention never really answering the hard questions at those long-gone hui.

Like where is the independent environmental testing? I have not been to a meeting on this kaupapa at Kaiuku ever and neither have any other Rocket Lab Monitor organisers. I have attended Hui a Iwi hui there, in case you’re mixed up.

From memory the last public hui in Mahia were held in late 2022 when MBIE were running public consultation. That hui was about launch regulation, policy and strategy for Aotearoa. No disruptions there, and no, we did not all agree.

In my assessment whānau (old and young, including Tawapata trustees) felt safer asking the regulator about the company’s activity without the company there — such is the level of trust in an American company doing business in Aotearoa.

In fact, the Space Agency leads from MBIE admitted they were not aware of many of the issues being raised.

The vast majority of submissions to space policy do not support any involvement in military payloads and neither do the the whānau.

I am glad that protesters keep raising the issues.

As Peter Beck makes wide, sweeping statements at aerospace summits and the AA magazine says he is the biggest contributor to the Hawke’s Bay economy, no one asks for the data to back that up. As evidence emerges that rocket launches are denigrating the ozone layer, the company does not want to talk about that.

Perhaps he could refund the $7 million-plus PGF-funded road out to the launch pad out of his recent sale of $38 million worth of stock.

My meagre Wairoa rates money is now having to pay for the upkeep. If I am subsidising RL operations I want my say about it.

Am I concerned about our safety and collective futures based on payloads that contribute to foreign nations’ kill chains? Well, yes I am.

Before Rocket Lab launched from Mahia did our future depend on them?

We need this American company’s presence like we need a hole in the head.

sonya smith, Nuhaka