Wait?WHAT! Shane Jones interviewed himself for vast mining concessions???

Wait?

WHAT!

Shane Jones interviewed himself for vast mining concessions???

Last-minute change puts oil and gas cleanup decisions in ministers’ hands

The government is set to repeal the oil and gas ban this week, after a significant 11th-hour change handing discretionary powers to two ministers.

A 25-page amendment was published at 5pm on Monday, leaving opposition MPs less than 23 hours to prepare for the debate.

The change largely deals with the rules for decommissioning oil and gas fields, and who is responsible for paying for the cleanup.

…the old law said that if an oil company sets up a shell company, then on-sells their licence to that shell company to escape clean up costs,  they are still on the hook for the clean up costs.

This was in response to the Tui Oil Field debacle that ended up costing us the taxpayer almost $300million in clean up costs because they used that loop hole.

Shane has dumped that law in favour of one where he and Nicola Willis alone make the decision!

Greenpeace explains the trick...

“Luxon is changing the legislation  so that the Minister of Resources and the Minister of Finance are given total ministerial discretion to approve the onselling of the depleted field, and if they approve and the final operator goes bankrupt, the original oil field operator is NOT responsible for the decommissioning costs. The government will end up with the cost.

“New Zealand taxpayers will be the ones that will be picking up the cost of cleaning up after oil companies abandon exhausted oil fields. Costs that could run into billions of dollars,” says Dr. Norman.

“New Zealand has already learnt an expensive lesson in how the oil industry operates. The Tui oil field passed through a number of hands before it was finally sold to an offshore oil company Tamarind that had little money, and Tamarind went bankrupt when faced with the cost of decommissioning the exhausted field. New Zealand taxpayers were stung for $300million to clean up the mess and plug the wells, which was only completed in June 2025.

“After the Tui field fiasco, the law was changed to make sure oil field operators were responsible for the clean up costs, regardless of how many shell companies to which it was onsold.

“The oil industry hated the changes to the law on liability for decommissioning costs as much as they hated the ending of offshore oil and gas exploration. And now they have their chance to pass on the costs to the taxpayers and you can be sure they will take it.

“As the New Zealand oil and gas industry enters its sunset phase, the costs of plugging the wells and cleaning up all the seafloor pipes etc will run into the billions. 

“This fossil fuel-obsessed government has given in to pressure from the oil industry and opened the door to making taxpayers pick up the costs of cleaning up after them. 

“This is part of a trend by this backward-looking Luxon government which has allocated $200m to help invest in new gas fields.

“Last month, it brought embarrassing shame to New Zealand by pulling out of the international Beyond Oil and Gas coalition, which has pledged to phase out fossil fuels.“

“New Zealand will have energy security, lower prices and low emissions by investing in solar, wind, geothermal, storage, efficiency and demand side management. That is our future, not the nonsense being promoted by Luxon and Shane Jones.”

…why the Christ should NZ be on the hook for oil and gas clean ups?

Why would we agree to that?

If these fuckers are making so much money from oil and gas, then they can clean up their own fucking pollution!

This is outrageous and opens the Government up to allegations of bribery if Ministers are in the pocket of the oil and gas industry!

This is as venal as it gets!

When challenged on the total lack of any Iwi engagement, look at what he said…

He was unapologetic about a lack of consultation with others, including iwi.

“So in the future the engagement will happen. This highly technical matter was not the subject of consultation in a detailed way, it was dealt with with a great deal of confidentiality. And in terms of providing a Māori dimension, I interviewed myself.”

…he interviewed himself?

FFS people!

Get off your knees kiwi!

Stop bowing before the corporations!

How much must you hate Jacinda, vaccinations and trans people for this to be acceptable?

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