Oil Free Wellington gave a speech at the Not Our Future March at parliament today. Heres what we had to say... Oil Free Wellington is an action group actively resisting Anadarko and any other oil and gas company that thinks they are going to come here and explore for oil and gas off our coasts. It has been a year of atrocities and the exploration of oil and gas has been no exception. This year the government offered up its biggest block offer, opening up over 400,00 square kilometres of ocean for oil and gas exploration. 3000 square kilometres of it in a marine mammal sanctuary, home to the last 55 Maui dolphins. They have taken away the consenting process by declaring exploratory deep sea drilling, the most dangerous phase, a non notified activity. This means we will not be informed or be consulted about this drilling but yet take all the risks associated with it. They have pushed through legislation restricting our right to defend our ocean and protest at sea. They have created new offshore regulations that limit spill damages a company must pay, a mere ten million dollars. To put that in perspective as of 2012 the Rena spill had cost just over 30 million dollars with projected costs of up to 150 million dollars. They are giving oil and gas companies 46 million dollars a year in tax cuts, they have spent $850,000 hosting the 2013 petroleum summit and and a further $250,000 wining and dining oil and gas executives and the 2011 rugby world cup. This government has no social licence to do this, nor do they have a social licence to actively seek out more fossil fuels at a time where all credible science tells us we cant afford to burn even a quarter of the fossil fuels we have already found. This year the IPCC released its 5th impact assessment report, affirming that climate change is one of the greatest threats of our time with very real implications for the New Zealand environment and economy, making climate change a big issue for us all. We shouldnt have to be fighting our own government to protect the things we love, our beaches, our coastlines, our oceans, our climate. Communities all over Aotearoa are working together and are saying no to the government and their big oil and gas players. We are saying no to fracking, no to coal and no to deep sea oil. We are saying yes to climate justice. We are saying give us a government that will listen to us the people, and work with us the people and the tamariki coming up behind us. Despite the efforts of this government to silence us, we the people have not given up and we will continue to be there at every step resisting until we get a government and system that represents us all, a system that puts an end to oil and gas exploration and advocates for climate justice. We need a government that is going to take the initiative to lead the way on climate change and inspire others into following our leadership. Together on September 20th we can make that happen. Kia kaha to you all and ka kite to John Key.
Posted on: Sat, 30 Aug 2014 05:10:05 +0000
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