Auckland City Shaken By Thousands Of Protest Drummers

Press release - March 30, 2015
Thousands of people from around the country brought drums along to a protest march in order to bang home a message to visiting oil executives that deep sea oil drilling is not acceptable in New Zealand.

Thousands of people from around the country brought drums along to a protest march in order to bang home a message to visiting oil executives that deep sea oil drilling is not acceptable in New Zealand.

Thousands of protesters march against deep sea oil drilling in Auckland today. Carrying placards and beating drums they show their opposition to the government’s oil drilling programme saying it poses risks to New Zealand’s marine mammals, oceans, coasts, economy and way of life. The march started at Victoria Park with speeches and live music and ended outside Skycity Convention Centre where the Advantage New Zealand Petroleum Summit is taking place. Energy and Resources minister Simon Bridges is expected to announce the 2015 Block Offers during the conference, which will determine how much more of New Zealand’s ocean territory is opened up to foreign drilling ships intent on finding deep sea oil. The march was organised by Greenpeace, 350 Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and Oil Free Auckland

The Auckland protest, which coincided with the launch of the Advantage New Zealand Petroleum Summit taking place in Skycity Convention Centre, also attracted the support of an international celebrity.

US music star Michael Franti, who is playing in Auckland tonight as part of a world tour, made a surprise appearance and kicked off the march by performing three songs, including his popular Yell Fire!

And home-grown artist Julia Deans also played a number for the thrilled crowd.

Thousands of people including many children then marched from Victoria Park up to the convention centre beating their drums.

Representatives from the world’s biggest oil corporations are currently in the country to discuss drilling opportunities in New Zealand waters.

During the three-day conference, energy and resources minister Simon Bridges is expected to announce the government’s 2015 block offers for petroleum exploration. This will see more areas of New Zealand’s ocean being opened up to mostly foreign oil drillers.

The offers are likely to include hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of our ocean territory off the West Coast of the North Island, stretching from Taranaki to beyond Northland as well as large offshore tracts of the East Coast of the North and South Islands, from Hawke’s Bay to south of Bluff.

Groups such as Greenpeace New Zealand, 350 Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and Oil Free Auckland have joined together to organise the march against deep sea drilling.

Greenpeace climate and energy spokesperson Steve Abel says the drums were a symbol of the harmful seismic blasts that are created by ships prospecting for oil in New Zealand.

The blasts, which can be heard from over 100km away, are the first step of oil exploration, and involve a ship firing off repeated seismic booms from underwater airguns every few seconds, day and night.

“Even though the blasting is known to distress marine mammals, it’s being carried out right now over huge tracts of ocean and very close to the habitat of the critically endangered Maui’s Dolphin,” Abel says.


Deep sea drilling also risks a catastrophic oil spill that could irreparably damage our oceans, coasts, economy and way of life, he says.

Industry standard oil spill modelling shows that a deep sea oil blowout could devastate New Zealand’s coastlines, with Auckland’s West Coast beaches such as Piha and Muriwai potentially being some of the worst affected.

It’s also universally accepted that up to 80% of the fossil fuels on the books today can never be burnt if we want to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Niamh O’Flynn of 350 Aotearoa says we must listen to the warnings of leading scientists around the world.

“They’re saying we must urgently move away from burning oil and towards clean energy if we want to reduce the extreme droughts, storms and food shortages that climate change is bringing.”

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