Government’s ludicrous petroleum proposal

NZPAM website, 21 September 2016

The New Zealand government has just proposed to release half a million square kilometres of our land and sea to petroleum exploration.

The Taranaki Basin offer encompassed a third of the West Coast Marine Mammal Sanctuary, designated for the protection of the nearly extinct Maui’s Dolphin. The government says “this has been re-introduced due to commercial interest in the area”.

So rather than upholding New Zealand’s international obligation to protect endangered species and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the government does what corporations want – “providing a stable and predictable regime”.  

Victories, Resistance and Determination

The last few weeks and months have seen a series of encouraging wins on the environmental front: