The Christchurch City Council has recenlty come out in opposition to the Government’s plans for risky deep sea drilling. Auckland Council is about to vote on their position this Thursday morning (5 Feb). Their draft submission does not oppose deep sea oil drilling off the West Coast of Auckland.

Click here to tell Len Brown and the Auckland City Councilors to vote against deep sea drilling of our coasts.

Exploration and drilling could happen over an enormous offshore area off the West coast of the North Island stretching from Taranaki to Northland, as well as vast tracts off the East coast of the North and South Islands all the way down past Bluff.



Councils and iwi authorities around the country have been invited to tell the Government what they think of the drilling plans. 

Industry standard oil spill modelling shows how utterly devastating a deep sea oil blowout could be to our oceans and coastlines. Auckland’s spectacular West Coast beaches could be some of the worst affected.

Even the industry's own spill modelling showed a 50% chance of oil washing up on Auckland's beaches in the event of a blowout off the west coast.

For New Zealanders, our clean seas and unpolluted coasts are a birthright and they are an inheritance for our children and grandchildren. These oceans and coastline are a place rich with life. We cannot risk a catastrophic oil spill such as we saw in the Gulf of Mexico happening here in our unspoiled waters.

The world has already found more oil than we can afford to burn if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change. It’s time for us to move away from dirty fossil fuels and towards a clean energy future - something New Zealand can and should be leading the way in.

That's why we're inviting people to email the council and urge them to oppose deep sea drilling, and we'll be gathering outside the Town Hall as they meet on Thursday to make sure the message is heard.