In a breathtaking display of hypocrisy, John Key is preparing to dish out new oil exploration permits - mere days after returning from the Paris climate change conference.
It’s expected that the Government will announce the latest round of these oil ‘block offers’ before the end of the year.
While in Parliament you can’t call someone a hypocrite, what other word can you use to describe a Prime Minister who stands on the world stage and says he cares about climate change and then comes home to approve plans to find and burn huge stores of underground carbon?
Key’s job should be to present a tangible plan to help combat climate change and protect our children’s future – but it seems he didn’t get the memo.
Instead, he’s hell bent on dolling out permits to look for the very oil that we can’t burn without irreversibly wrecking the climate.
We know it’s likely the latest block offer announcement is looming because it’s almost always declared during the last sitting week of Parliament before Christmas…which is this week.
And based on previous years, it’s also likely that we’ll see hundreds of thousands more square kilometres of New Zealand water handed over to foreign petroleum giants for oil exploration.
On the back of Paris, it would be a royal disaster for New Zealand and its reputation.
If there is one thing Key can do to scrape back an ounce of climate change credibility, it would be to cancel the oil exploration agenda - immediately.
He needs to listen to the people he has been elected to serve.
Since August, dozens of communities around the country have joined together to pressure their local councils to “block the offer” and say “no” to oil exploration.
Christchurch, Dunedin and Kaikoura Councils listened to their constituents and voted in favour of telling Central Government that oil surveying is not welcome in their waters. Auckland Council was evenly split, with Len Brown’s vote in favour of oil drilling breaking the deadlock.
But it’s not just on home turf where people are getting fed up. At the Paris climate conference, the New Zealand Government was criticised for its inadequate offer to reduce its contribution to global climate change.
It even picked up the very first ‘Fossil of the Day Award’, a booby prize given out by global NGO coalition, Climate Action Network.
Most shocking for me has been to watch our Pacific Island brothers and sisters being forced to form an alliance with the EU at the talks, against New Zealand and the block of countries trying to prevent a binding and ambitious agreement.
They have no other choice: Ensuring the world doesn’t heat up by more than 1.5 degrees is the only option they have left when it comes to safeguarding their future.
And as the temperatures rise, choices are quickly evaporating for us too.
So tell us Mr Key, is oil really worth it?