Nationwide Climate Protests Target ANZ, Shane Jones No-show
28 May: Protestors in at least ten locations across the country are taking to ANZ offices, creating 'climate crime scenes and performing theatre outside ANZ branches. The first protest kicked off in Wellington yesterday, with a simple message; Stop enabling fossil fuel expansion.
During his Budget 2025 speech, Minister Shane Jones condemned the protest, inadvertently spurring a significant boost to protest RSVPs. Despite his promises that "I will be there the day before. And I will be there with my megaphone, - the Minister failed to show up as promised.
350 Aotearoa spokesperson Adam Currie says Government Ministers breaking promises is not surprising, and is why the protest group is focused instead on targeting ANZ to achieve change. 'We're here because ANZ is providing banking services to coal giant Bathurst Resources, whose monstrous coal mine proposal threatens not only the Denniston Plateau, but the climate we all rely on. ANZ enabling the biggest coal proposal in NZ history isn't a mistake. It's a business model: profit now, climate collapse later.'
'Fossil fuel expansion is the worst of the worst - and there is no moral or economic basis for ANZ to enable climate crime. Without banking services, companies like Bathurst can't dig, drill, or destroy. Other banks, such as BNZ and Kiwibank, have committed to shutting down banking services to coal expansionists by 2030. Yet ANZ is banking with fossil fuel companies other banks have dropped. For the sake of the climate we love, it's time for ANZ to break free from fossil fuels.'
The ANZ protests kicked off in Pōneke/Wellington yesterday. Actions are scheduled today for Dunedin, Rotorua, Auckland and Wānaka, and protests in Nelson and Christchurch are scheduled for tomorrow. The week of protest will culminate in a protest outside ANZ's sole branch in the West Coast - where ANZ client Bathurst Resources hopes to open a 20 million tonne coal mine on the pristine Denniston Plateau. Protests range from theatre demonstrations, to rallies, to interactive games such as ' Pin the kiwi under the bulldozer'. Details, times and locations of protests can be found via this link: https://act.350.org/event/anz-action-25/
The week of action comes after protests erupted at Bathurst's proposed coal mine on the Denniston Plateau, with climbers shutting down Stockton Mine and over 70 protestors camping in the mine footprint.
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