Greenpeace says that a retrospective law change, which makes it illegal to sue climate polluters over the damages caused by climate change, is yet more evidence of corporate capture within the Coalition Government.<\/p>\n\n
The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament yesterday, prohibits New Zealanders from suing businesses over the impacts of their climate pollution. The law was primarily designed to prevent the Smith v Fonterra case spearheaded by M\u0101ori activist Mike Smith.<\/p>\n\n
Greenpeace Programme Director Niamh O\u2019Flynn says, \u201cThe Coalition Government passing this Bill at the bidding of corporations shows the sinister side of the influence of polluters on politics. Instead of standing for the interests of New Zealanders, this Government has stepped in to prevent some of New Zealand\u2019s worst polluters from being held accountable for their climate destruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis abuse of power \u2013 a law change made at the request of Fonterra and Z Energy \u2013 is yet more evidence that this Government is little more than a puppet for polluting corporations and industries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBig polluters \u2013 like Fonterra and the oil and gas industry \u2013 are profiting from the climate crisis, but the rest of us are paying the price, from skyrocketing insurance premiums to the enormous cost of rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure after climate disasters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In May, it was revealed that secret lobbying by Fonterra and Z Energy \u2013 including a briefing sent to the personal email of the Prime Minister\u2019s Chief Policy Advisor \u2013 had led to the creation of the Bill. O\u2019Flynn says this is just one example in a broader pattern.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis Government has allowed corporate polluters to write the policy on everything from fresh water to climate change. Now, they\u2019re attempting to take away our avenues to challenge those polluters. But we will continue to resist.\u201d
\u201cIn 2013, the National Government passed the Anadarko Amendment at the bidding of international oil giants, to prevent New Zealanders from confronting climate villains. Despite this, our movement (with Mike at the forefront) continued to kick them out one-by-one. Mike\u2019s case may be on ice, but he and the thousands of New Zealanders taking action for climate change will keep fighting this war on nature.\u201d
\u201cIf this Government thinks that by preventing civil lawsuits against polluters, they\u2019re stopping us from taking action, then they\u2019ve got another thing coming. We will continue to fight for our kids\u2019 and grandkids\u2019 future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A retrospective law change, which makes it illegal to sue polluters over climate change damages, is evidence of corporate capture within Govt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":59684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16,51],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-78224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-climate","tag-politics","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n