{"id":732,"date":"2016-09-20T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/press-release\/our-government-the-blockheads-again\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T15:48:24","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T03:48:24","slug":"our-government-the-blockheads-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/our-government-the-blockheads-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Government, the blockheads. Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Zealand Government is pleased to announce that next year they\u2019re keen to open more than 500,000 square kilometres of our ocean for oil companies to survey and drill, including parts of the marine mammal sanctuary, home to the world\u2019s most endangered<\/span><\/a> dolphin, the M\u0101ui.<\/p>\n

What utter blockheads.<\/span><\/p>\n

We live in a time when the changing climate means widespread devastation is looming. In our lifetime, we\u2019re going to see mass extinction, sea level rise, threatened food and water security, and an influx of climate refugees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many countries around the world are desperately working together to action plans that cut our dirty fossil fuel emissions before it\u2019s too late.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, our Prime Minister and his government are doing worse than nothing – they\u2019re sitting back, twiddling their thumbs, saying: \u201cSweet as bro, she\u2019ll be right!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday, Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges kicked off the Block Offer 2017 process for awarding oil and gas exploration permits by releasing a map of the simply gigantic areas of New Zealand the Government is proposing to lend to the fossil fuel industry to do their worst on.<\/span><\/p>\n

What will happen from here is:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Consultation with iwi on these Block Offers begins now
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Consultation with local authorities begins on October 17
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. The consultation period for Block Offer 2017 ends on 18 November
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. The Government will go away and \u201cconsider\u201d all submissions
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. The final block offer areas will be announced in March 2017 and oil companies will tender for access to them.
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The diamond in the rough is the fact that consultation with local councils doesn’t begin for a few weeks yet – after Local Body Election results are announced. This gives New Zealanders around the country the opportunity to pressure their local candidates to commit to opposing the block offer proposal in the lead-up to the election, before they even get their feet under the desks.<\/span><\/p>\n

    We can\u2019t make personal submissions on the block offer or during any other part of the permit process, so we need to get our local leaders to act for us. Ask your candidates the hard questions about their policies on oil exploration. Wherever\u00a0we can, we must get them on the record opposing it, and advocating for a safer climate for us all.<\/span><\/p>\n

    People power has worked in the past and it will work again.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s take a look back at how far the #StopDeepSeaOil movement has come in just a year.<\/span><\/p>\n