Speech at March for Nature <\/p>\n\n
September 19 2026<\/p>\n\n
Russel Norman<\/p>\n\n
Kia ora koutou<\/p>\n\n
We have come together today in our thousands with one message for this Coalition Government:<\/p>\n\n
Stop your war on nature and take your hands off conservation land. <\/p>\n\n
Take your hands off the forests, the mountains, the rivers and the land we love. <\/p>\n\n
We are here because we all know conservation land should not be carved up, exploited and degraded for mines, luxury resorts, strip malls and private commercial development.<\/p>\n\n
We are here because we love these places and we will fight to protect what we love.<\/p>\n\n
We are part of nature, not separate from it. When the government wages a war on nature, they wage a war on all of us and on future generations.<\/p>\n\n
Today we will raise our voices together so loudly the Beehive will not be able to ignore it and send them a clear message:<\/p>\n\n
Ditch the Conservation Amendment Bill!<\/p>\n\n
I\u2019ve got news for this Government. Conservation land is for conservation! <\/p>\n\n
It is for nature. It is for wildlife. It is for all of us. It is not a private playground for developers and billionaire political donors.<\/p>\n\n
The job of the Department of Conservation is right there in the name. Conservation.<\/p>\n\n
Not exploitation. Not destruction. Not maximising the commercial profits at the cost of nature.<\/p>\n\n
Friends, we have been here before. In 2010, John Key\u2019s Government tried to allow mining in our most protected conservation land. And what did New Zealanders do? We marched. Thousands of us took to the streets. We stood up for the places we loved.<\/p>\n\n
We defended nature and we won. <\/p>\n\n
That victory did not happen because people stayed home. It happened because people showed up. Just like you have shown up today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n It is time this Government learned something that governments before it have learned the hard way:<\/p>\n\n New Zealanders love nature and conservation land. And when you threaten the places and the wildlife that we love – we fight for them. <\/p>\n\n Today, at this March for Nature, we are putting this Government on notice.<\/p>\n\n If you try to turn conservation land into mines – together, we will stop you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n If you try to fence us out of public conservation land – together, we will push your fences down.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n If you try to carve up our most spectacular wild places for luxury resorts – together, we will stand in your way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The moment the first survey peg goes into the ground, we will be there to pull it out.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Because these places do not belong to Christopher Luxon and his billionaire donors. These places are not the Government’s to give away.<\/p>\n\n Our job is to protect them.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n So look around you. Look at how many of us are here. None of us are alone in this fight.<\/p>\n\n Remember this feeling. Remember this power and take it with you when you leave today.<\/p>\n\n Because today is not the end of this. We keep organising. We keep marching. <\/p>\n\n Generations before us have stepped up to defend nature, and we are here to take on our responsibility to protect nature for generations to come.<\/p>\n\n We will keep fighting for what we love. <\/p>\n\n Until this Government and all future governments gets the message:<\/p>\n\n HANDS OFF CONSERVATION LAND! <\/p>\n\n Kia kaha!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speech at March for Nature <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":78903,"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":[],"p4-page-type":[6],"class_list":["post-78913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","p4-page-type-story"],"yoast_head":"\n