Allan Birchfield
{{Short description|New Zealand local politician, coal and gold miner}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Allan Birchfield
|image =
|alt =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth based on age as of date |70|2020|04|3}}
|birth_place = New Zealand
|death_date =
|death_place =
|spouse =
|office7 = Chairperson of West Coast Regional Council
|term_start7 = 2019
|term_end7 = 2023
|profession = Coal and gold miner
}}
Allan John Birchfield (born 1949/1950) is a coal and gold miner from the South Island's West Coast of New Zealand. He is a West Coast Regional Councillor who served as chairperson from 2019 to 2023. He is known for his climate change denial.
Family and mining career
Birchfield's family has a long history of coal and gold mining and sawmilling on the West Coast.{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Joanne |date=21 January 2016 |title=Unique West Coast gold dredge for sale |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/76077633/unique-west-coast-gold-dredge-for-sale |access-date=19 November 2020|website=Stuff |language=en}} His father was Maxwell John Birchfield (1923–1990).{{cite web |title=Maxwell John Birchfield |url=https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/51023268/person/222098075765/facts |publisher=Ancestry.com |access-date=19 November 2020}} Birchfield farms land at Ngahere, works an alluvial gold claim near Hokitika, and is director of Birchfield Coal Mines Ltd, owned with his three siblings.{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois|date=31 August 2020|title='No ecologists on my land' – West Coast Regional council chair|url= https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/424886/no-ecologists-on-my-land-west-coast-regional-council-chair|access-date=19 November 2020|website=RNZ |language=en-nz}}{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois|date=3 April 2020|title=Goldmining on hold during Covid-19 lockdown|url= https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/413383/goldmining-on-hold-during-covid-19-lockdown|access-date=19 November 2020|website=RNZ |language=en-nz}} Birchfield Coal Mines, started by Birchfield's parents in 1977, employs 20 people at a mine near Reefton, and in 2016 bought the Liverpool and Strongman mines from bankrupt mining company Solid Energy.{{Cite news |last=Carroll|first=Joanne|date=1 November 2016|title=Two historic West Coast coal mines to reopen|url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/85967384/two-historic-west-coast-coal-mines-to-reopen|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Stuff |language=en}}
Birchfield is the owner of the Kanieri, the last gold dredge operating on the West Coast and the largest remaining alluvial bucket gold dredge in the world. The {{convert|3500|tonne}} dredge was built in 1938 to work the Kaniere area, and recovered {{convert|175,000|oz|kg}} of gold from around Hokitika and {{convert|202,000|oz|kg}} from the Taramakau River before stopping operation in 1978.{{Cite web |last1=Curtis |last2=Curtis |first1=Peter |first2=Pauline |date=2012 |title=Touring New Zealand 2012 part 8 |url= http://www.uniquelynz.com/nz12-p8.htm |access-date=19 November 2020|website=Uniquely NZ}} It was salvaged and rebuilt by US company R.A. Hanson Co. (also known as RAHCO) in 1989, who went into receivership eight months later.{{Cite news |last=McBride|first=Paul |date=1 April 2019 |title=Tauranga miner wishes to buy giant gold dredge |url= https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/tauranga-miner-wishes-buy-giant-gold-dredge|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Otago Daily Times |language=en}} The dredge was purchased by Birchfield Minerals in August 1992 and ran at Ngahere, {{convert|22|km}} inland from Greymouth, until 2004 before being mothballed as unprofitable.
It restarted operation in 2009 with a NZ$2.2 million loan from Development West Coast, mining the Grey River flats near Blackball and ran until 2012, when falling gold prices and resource consents led to it being mothballed again. In 2013 Birchfield successfully defended eight charges by the Department of Conservation of undertaking commercial gold mining without authority and damaging conservation land at Blackball and the Grey River. In 2016, then 65, he announced he was retiring from gold mining and put the dredge up for sale, but it remains in storage at his Ngahere property. He continues to work an alluvial gold claim south of Greymouth and in the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 he argued gold mining should continue as an essential service. He petitioned then-Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage to allow alluvial gold mining on Department of Conservation land.{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois|date=19 June 2020|title=Gold miner hopeful mining will be allowed on conservation land|url= https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/419400/gold-miner-hopeful-mining-will-be-allowed-on-conservation-land |access-date=19 November 2020|website=RNZ |language=en-nz}}
Local government career
Birchfield was elected chairman of the West Coast Regional Council in 2019, after six terms as a councillor,{{Cite news |last=Mills |first=Laura |date=26 October 2019 |title=Birchfield to chair West Coast Regional Council |work=Otago Daily Times |url= https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/west-coast/birchfield-chair-west-coast-rgional-council|access-date=19 November 2020}} and reinstated an opening prayer at Council meetings. "New Zealand is a Christian country, and Christian standards are good ones," he claimed.{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois |date=19 December 2019|title=West Coast Regional Council reinstates prayer at meetings|url= https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1912/S00140/west-coast-regional-council-reinstates-prayer-at-meetings.htm |access-date=19 November 2020|website=Scoop News}}
He was a member of the Te Tai o Poutini One Plan Committee, which is legally required to identify significant natural areas (SNAs) such as native forest or wetland remaining on private land.{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois |date=28 August 2020 |title=SNA work begins on West Coast|url= https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/424692/sna-work-begins-on-west-coast |access-date=19 November 2020 |website=RNZ |language=en-nz}}{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois|date=18 June 2020|title=West Coast council locks in rates freeze |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/local-democracy-reporting/121876402/west-coast-council-locks-in-rates-freeze|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Stuff |language=en}} Ecologists Wildlands Consultants Ltd were hired to physically inspect features on private land that might qualify as a SNA, but Birchfield vowed to bar any ecologists from accessing his own land. "As far as I'm concerned, it's theft. If the government wants to save this stuff it should buy it." he said.
Birchfield was removed as chair by his fellow councillors on 28 March 2023.{{cite web |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131608570/allan-birchfield-removed-as-west-coast-regional-council-chairperson |title=Allan Birchfield removed as West Coast Regional Council chairperson |date=28 March 2023 |work=Stuff |first=Joanne |last=Naish}} On 8 August, councillors voted to remove him from committees due to leaking confidential information to the media.{{cite web |url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/132700830/controversial-councillor-told-to-apologise-after-leaking-information-to-media |title=Controversial councillor told to apologise after leaking information to media |date=8 August 2023 |work=Stuff |first=Joanne |last=Naish}}
Views and positions
=Climate change denial=
Birchfield denies the scientific consensus on climate change, specifically causation by humans and sea-level rise, calling it "a gigantic fraud"{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Joanne |last2=Gorman |first2=Paul |date=29 January 2019 |title=West Coast Regional Council wants proof of human-caused climate change before supporting Zero Carbon Bill |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/110223334/west-coast-regional-council-wants-proof-of-humancaused-climate-change-before-supporting-zero-carbon-bill |access-date=19 November 2020|website=Stuff }} and "the biggest rort in the history of human civilisation".{{Cite news |last=Williams|first=Lois|date=12 May 2020|title=Climate change 'a rort' – West Coast Regional Council chair|url= https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/416440/climate-change-a-rort-west-coast-regional-council-chair |access-date=19 November 2020 |website=RNZ |language=en-nz}} He refused to accept a report to the regional council about future hazards to the region from sea-level rise, calling it "bullshit". When Kiwibank announced it would no longer do business with the fossil fuel industry, he accused them of "trying to destroy the economy."{{Cite news |last=Carroll |first=Joanne |date=23 July 2020 |title=Kiwibank 'trying to destroy' the New Zealand economy, miner says |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/122228422/kiwibank-trying-to-destroy-the-new-zealand-economy-miner-says |access-date=19 November 2020 |website=Stuff |language=en}}
=COVID-19 pandemic=
Birchfield was rebuked by the New Zealand Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon for referring to the COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus".{{Cite news |last=Sherwood |first=Sam |date=15 August 2020 |title=Coronavirus: Race Relations Commissioner says West Coast chairman's comments about China 'not on' |url= https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122460290/coronavirus-race-relations-commissioner-says-west-coast-chairmans-comments-about-china-not-on |access-date=19 November 2020|website=Stuff |language=en}} He claimed "It's not racist at all, we all know where it started." Buller mayor Jamie Cleine and Greymouth mayor Tania Gibson distanced themselves from Birchfield's remarks.
=Donald Trump=
Birchfield is an admirer of former US President Donald Trump, wearing a MAGA cap in photographs and posing in front of a framed portrait of Trump.
=Politics=
He is a staunch National supporter, but in the 2011 general election ran as the ACT candidate for West Coast-Tasman, receiving 487 votes.{{cite web |title=Official Count Results – West Coast-Tasman (2011)|url= http://electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2011/electorate-60.html|access-date=24 October 2017|publisher=Electoral Commission}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birchfield, Allan}}
Category:People from the West Coast Region
Category:New Zealand coal miners
Category:New Zealand gold prospectors
Category:West Coast regional councillors
Category:ACT New Zealand politicians
Category:New Zealand businesspeople
Category:Unsuccessful candidates in the 2011 New Zealand general election