Government poised to ram through reckless demolition of environmental protections – Greenpeace

Parliament is set to vote today on what Greenpeace says is the most reckless demolition of environmental protections in a generation.

The Coalition Government’s Resource Management Act (RMA) replacements – the Natural Environment and Planning Bills – return to Parliament for their second reading after emerging from the Select Committee process environmentally worse than when they were first introduced.

Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop says, “These Bills are an all-out assault on the law that is supposed to protect the rivers we swim in, the water we drink, the forests that hold our hillsides together, the wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique, and the places New Zealanders love.”

“These Bills turn the purpose of our main environmental law on its head. Instead of safeguarding clean water, healthy ecosystems and communities, these proposed laws would protect companies who profit from polluting and exploiting the environment.”

The Government has retained its controversial ‘regulatory relief’ scheme, which could force  ratepayers to compensate companies when stronger environmental protections affect profits, potentially costing the public nearly $2 billion. 

They have also removed the precautionary principle – a cornerstone of environmental law that recognises action should be taken when there is a credible risk of serious or irreversible environmental harm, even where scientific certainty is incomplete.

“These Bills even flip the polluter pays principle on its head,” says Toop.

“If a council wants to stop erosion from forestry, a wetland from being drained or strengthen safeguards for native wildlife, the New Zealand public may have to compensate the very companies responsible for the damage. It is absolutely perverse”

Toop says the legislation has become even more extreme since it was first introduced.

“The Government is planning to throw environmental limits and the precautionary principle out the door, tear up agreements between iwi and councils, force the public to compensate polluters, and make it easier for companies to kill native wildlife.”

Among the most alarming changes is the decision to scrap existing Mana Whakahono ā Rohe established arrangements between councils and iwi for shared environmental decision-making.

“These Bills roll back Māori participation in environmental decision-making and sideline tangata whenua from decisions about the lands and waters they have cared for for centuries. That is unacceptable. Parliament must reject these Bills,” says Toop.

Toop says the Bills are yet another assault in the Coalition Government’s war on nature and is calling on people to join the March for Nature in Auckland on 19 September.

“From fast-track consenting to proposing to sell off public conservation land, this Government has spent the last three years systematically dismantling the environmental protections New Zealanders fought for over generations,” says Toop.

“Governments can pass laws, but they can’t change what New Zealanders value. On 19 September, we’re calling on people to stand together and march for the forests, oceans, rivers, coastlines and wildlife of Aotearoa.”