She turned down the application and because it was a split decision, she won, which in and of itself is the maddest system you've ever heard of. Why does one beat the other? Why does her vote outvote the other?
Anyway the more sensible heads in the Government clearly saw the madness and danger in all of this, so when Oceania Gold went for an appeal, it ended up on the desks of Finance Minister Grant Robertson and David Parker.
Both you will note are from the Labour Party, and both you will note have an overarching brief on business. And as good sense would have it, Oceania Gold get the go-ahead and Waihi, and the region, get the benefits.
This, of course, exposes Sage badly because that's now a 3-1 vote. Or it's Labour versus the Greens. Take your pick.
But unfortunately for us all, and we raised this when the original decision was made, Sage and her lot are dangerous and need containing. They simply do not have this country's best interests at heart (unless our interests involve snails, walking tracks, and ferns).
Sage turned down jobs. And despite what she might like to think, jobs actually count, and are more important than just about anything. You can have a political philosophy, but it can't come at the expense of everyone else. It can't trump logic, and it can't trump the basics of a country's economic foundations - that's exactly what she tried to do.
Add Julie Anne Genter to the mix trying to ban cars and bring down the coalition over a tunnel in Wellington. There aren't normal people, which is fine, but the line has to be drawn when their abnormalities endanger the rest of us through economic sabotage.
Fortunately wise heads prevailed. Parker and Robertson saw the danger, sidelined Sage, and put things right.
But the red flags are there: Labour remain associated with economic wreckers. It's a very tangible example of just why business confidence is where it is.
And you are measured by who you hang with, and they're hanging with fiscal nutters.
