Latest news with #GreenpeaceAotearoa
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Scorched Earth Budget - Tax Cuts For Polluters And Investing In Fossil Fuels
Greenpeace Aotearoa is condemning the Government's 2025 Budget as a fighting fund for the war on nature, taken from hard-working New Zealanders to funnel towards wannabe seabed miners and oil and gas exploration. As part of Budget 2025, the Government announced over a billion in tax cuts for corporates and a $200m dollar fund f or gas exploration and extraction. "This is a Scorched Earth Budget delivered in the middle of a climate crisis. The Government should be doubling down on action to cut emissions - not dumping public money into more fossil fuel extraction." "Let's be clear about why they're slashing equal pay for women and gutting environmental protections - it's to fund tax cuts for landlords and big tobacco, and now give handouts to the fossil fuel industry." Greenpeace warns that "balancing the books" will only get harder if the Government pushes ahead with the Regulatory Standards Bill and RMA reforms. Both proposals include compensation clauses that could see corporations demand taxpayer handouts whenever new environmental or public health protections are introduced. "It's hard to see how any future government is going to afford basic protections for people or nature if polluters can demand payment every time they're regulated," says Toop. Greenpeace says this Budget is part of a pattern of slashing money for environmental and climate initiatives. Since taking the reins, the Government has:
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Leading Environmental Organisations Call On The PM To Reject The Regulatory Standards Bill
Press Release – Greenpeace The open letter, signed by the executive directors of Forest & Bird, Greenpeace Aotearoa, EDS, and WWF-NZ, describes the Regulatory Standards Bill as 'an unprecedented threat' to environmental protection, climate action, and the countrys democratic and constitutional … Four of Aotearoa New Zealand's leading environmental organisations have today issued a joint open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, urging him to reject the Regulatory Standards Bill in full. The Regulatory Standards Bill is being discussed in Cabinet on Monday, 19 May 2025. The open letter, signed by the executive directors of Forest & Bird, Greenpeace Aotearoa, the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), and WWF-New Zealand, describes the Regulatory Standards Bill as 'an unprecedented threat' to environmental protection, climate action, and the country's democratic and constitutional foundations. The organisations warn the Bill would create a dangerous new precedent where governments are expected to compensate companies if new environmental protections interfere with their property, effectively turning the polluters pay principle on its head. — Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon Re: The Regulatory Standards Bill Dear Prime Minister, As leading environmental organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are writing to express our deep concern regarding the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. We strongly urge your Government to reject this bill in its entirety. The Regulatory Standards Bill poses a significant and unprecedented threat to New Zealand's ability to respond to pressing environmental challenges, uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and maintain a functioning and responsive democracy. If enacted, this legislation would: Impose financial penalties on environmental action, making it a new and unprecedented expectation that the Crown would compensate corporations when laws to protect nature or the climate affect the use or value of their property; Undermine environmental protections by prioritising individual freedoms and private property rights over the health of nature and the public interest; Establish an unelected Regulatory Standards Board, appointed by the Minister for Regulation, with the power to hear and amplify complaints from companies and pressure the Government over any policy inconsistent with a rigid set of principles. The bill also explicitly excludes Te Tiriti o Waitangi from its set of 'good' law making principles. This risks undermining decades of progress towards incorporating Treaty principles into environmental governance and will likely result in legal confusion and uncertainty. The Ministry of Justice has already advised that the Bill fails to reflect the constitutional significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is not aligned with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The principles that all future governments would be required to consider under the Regulatory Standards Bill omit critical aspects of environmental stewardship, and elevate individual freedoms and private property rights above all other considerations. This ideology has no place in our legal system here in Aotearoa, where we have long valued fairness and collective responsibility rather than individual entitlement to harm nature or others under the guise of freedom. At a time of escalating climate change and declining biodiversity, this Bill would make it harder – not easier – for governments to act in the national interest. The Regulatory Standards Bill has been rejected three times before. We believe it should be rejected again. There is no public mandate for this proposal, and it is being advanced through a coalition agreement, not by popular demand or broad consensus. We therefore respectfully call on you to: – Reject the Regulatory Standards Bill in its entirety; – Commit to strengthening, not weakening, the Government's capacity to address environmental challenges for the benefit of all people in Aotearoa and future generations; and – Reaffirm the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in lawmaking and regulatory design.
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Leading Environmental Organisations Call On The PM To Reject The Regulatory Standards Bill
Four of Aotearoa New Zealand's leading environmental organisations have today issued a joint open letter to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, urging him to reject the Regulatory Standards Bill in full. The Regulatory Standards Bill is being discussed in Cabinet on Monday, 19 May 2025. The open letter, signed by the executive directors of Forest & Bird, Greenpeace Aotearoa, the Environmental Defence Society (EDS), and WWF-New Zealand, describes the Regulatory Standards Bill as "an unprecedented threat" to environmental protection, climate action, and the country's democratic and constitutional foundations. The organisations warn the Bill would create a dangerous new precedent where governments are expected to compensate companies if new environmental protections interfere with their property, effectively turning the polluters pay principle on its head. --- Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon Re: The Regulatory Standards Bill Dear Prime Minister, As leading environmental organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand, we are writing to express our deep concern regarding the proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. We strongly urge your Government to reject this bill in its entirety. The Regulatory Standards Bill poses a significant and unprecedented threat to New Zealand's ability to respond to pressing environmental challenges, uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and maintain a functioning and responsive democracy. If enacted, this legislation would: Impose financial penalties on environmental action, making it a new and unprecedented expectation that the Crown would compensate corporations when laws to protect nature or the climate affect the use or value of their property; Undermine environmental protections by prioritising individual freedoms and private property rights over the health of nature and the public interest; Establish an unelected Regulatory Standards Board, appointed by the Minister for Regulation, with the power to hear and amplify complaints from companies and pressure the Government over any policy inconsistent with a rigid set of principles. The bill also explicitly excludes Te Tiriti o Waitangi from its set of "good" law making principles. This risks undermining decades of progress towards incorporating Treaty principles into environmental governance and will likely result in legal confusion and uncertainty. The Ministry of Justice has already advised that the Bill fails to reflect the constitutional significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and is not aligned with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The principles that all future governments would be required to consider under the Regulatory Standards Bill omit critical aspects of environmental stewardship, and elevate individual freedoms and private property rights above all other considerations. This ideology has no place in our legal system here in Aotearoa, where we have long valued fairness and collective responsibility rather than individual entitlement to harm nature or others under the guise of freedom. At a time of escalating climate change and declining biodiversity, this Bill would make it harder - not easier - for governments to act in the national interest. The Regulatory Standards Bill has been rejected three times before. We believe it should be rejected again. There is no public mandate for this proposal, and it is being advanced through a coalition agreement, not by popular demand or broad consensus. We therefore respectfully call on you to: - Reject the Regulatory Standards Bill in its entirety; - Commit to strengthening, not weakening, the Government's capacity to address environmental challenges for the benefit of all people in Aotearoa and future generations; and - Reaffirm the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in lawmaking and regulatory design.
The Advertiser
13-05-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Rainbow Warrior in NZ return, 40 years after bombing
Forty years on from its bombing in Auckland - causing an almighty diplomatic rift and cementing New Zealand's anti-nuclear outlook - the Rainbow Warrior is returning. The Greenpeace-staffed yacht will dock in the City of Sails for the anniversary in July, completing a similar journey that its precursor vessel undertook in 1985. The Rainbow Warrior sailed south to New Zealand after helping to ferry a few hundred Marshall Islanders from an atoll polluted by US nuclear testing. It had planned to join a flotilla protesting French tests, but the ship was blown up by undercover French agents, killing a photographer aboard. Kiwi Prime Minister David Lange labelled the attack "a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism", for which France later apologised and paid compensation. The biggest after-effect was confirming New Zealand's status as a non-nuclear state, with huge support for bans on nuclear-powered vessels and nuclear weapons that continue to this day. "Our ship was targeted because Greenpeace and the campaign to stop nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific were so effective," Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman said. Mr Norman said the anniversary sail was not purely for commemorations on July 10, instead coming at a "pivotal moment when the fight to protect our planet's fragile life-support systems has never been as urgent or more critical". Conservationists accuse the Chris Luxon's government with a vast array of environmental degradations: fast-tracked seabed mining and new coalmines, intensive dairy and agriculture harming biodiversity and water standards, and abandoning Jacinda Ardern-era climate plans. "Here in Aotearoa, the Luxon government is waging an all-out war on nature, and on a planetary scale, climate change, ecosystem collapse, and accelerating species extinction pose an existential threat," Mr Norman said. The ship visiting is the third iteration of the Rainbow Warrior. The original lies on the seabed off Matauri Bay, north of Auckland, where it was scuttled to become a dive site and artificial reef. It will host open days in Auckland when it arrives, following maintenance in Cairns, where it currently is harboured. Forty years on from its bombing in Auckland - causing an almighty diplomatic rift and cementing New Zealand's anti-nuclear outlook - the Rainbow Warrior is returning. The Greenpeace-staffed yacht will dock in the City of Sails for the anniversary in July, completing a similar journey that its precursor vessel undertook in 1985. The Rainbow Warrior sailed south to New Zealand after helping to ferry a few hundred Marshall Islanders from an atoll polluted by US nuclear testing. It had planned to join a flotilla protesting French tests, but the ship was blown up by undercover French agents, killing a photographer aboard. Kiwi Prime Minister David Lange labelled the attack "a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism", for which France later apologised and paid compensation. The biggest after-effect was confirming New Zealand's status as a non-nuclear state, with huge support for bans on nuclear-powered vessels and nuclear weapons that continue to this day. "Our ship was targeted because Greenpeace and the campaign to stop nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific were so effective," Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman said. Mr Norman said the anniversary sail was not purely for commemorations on July 10, instead coming at a "pivotal moment when the fight to protect our planet's fragile life-support systems has never been as urgent or more critical". Conservationists accuse the Chris Luxon's government with a vast array of environmental degradations: fast-tracked seabed mining and new coalmines, intensive dairy and agriculture harming biodiversity and water standards, and abandoning Jacinda Ardern-era climate plans. "Here in Aotearoa, the Luxon government is waging an all-out war on nature, and on a planetary scale, climate change, ecosystem collapse, and accelerating species extinction pose an existential threat," Mr Norman said. The ship visiting is the third iteration of the Rainbow Warrior. The original lies on the seabed off Matauri Bay, north of Auckland, where it was scuttled to become a dive site and artificial reef. It will host open days in Auckland when it arrives, following maintenance in Cairns, where it currently is harboured. Forty years on from its bombing in Auckland - causing an almighty diplomatic rift and cementing New Zealand's anti-nuclear outlook - the Rainbow Warrior is returning. The Greenpeace-staffed yacht will dock in the City of Sails for the anniversary in July, completing a similar journey that its precursor vessel undertook in 1985. The Rainbow Warrior sailed south to New Zealand after helping to ferry a few hundred Marshall Islanders from an atoll polluted by US nuclear testing. It had planned to join a flotilla protesting French tests, but the ship was blown up by undercover French agents, killing a photographer aboard. Kiwi Prime Minister David Lange labelled the attack "a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism", for which France later apologised and paid compensation. The biggest after-effect was confirming New Zealand's status as a non-nuclear state, with huge support for bans on nuclear-powered vessels and nuclear weapons that continue to this day. "Our ship was targeted because Greenpeace and the campaign to stop nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific were so effective," Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman said. Mr Norman said the anniversary sail was not purely for commemorations on July 10, instead coming at a "pivotal moment when the fight to protect our planet's fragile life-support systems has never been as urgent or more critical". Conservationists accuse the Chris Luxon's government with a vast array of environmental degradations: fast-tracked seabed mining and new coalmines, intensive dairy and agriculture harming biodiversity and water standards, and abandoning Jacinda Ardern-era climate plans. "Here in Aotearoa, the Luxon government is waging an all-out war on nature, and on a planetary scale, climate change, ecosystem collapse, and accelerating species extinction pose an existential threat," Mr Norman said. The ship visiting is the third iteration of the Rainbow Warrior. The original lies on the seabed off Matauri Bay, north of Auckland, where it was scuttled to become a dive site and artificial reef. It will host open days in Auckland when it arrives, following maintenance in Cairns, where it currently is harboured. Forty years on from its bombing in Auckland - causing an almighty diplomatic rift and cementing New Zealand's anti-nuclear outlook - the Rainbow Warrior is returning. The Greenpeace-staffed yacht will dock in the City of Sails for the anniversary in July, completing a similar journey that its precursor vessel undertook in 1985. The Rainbow Warrior sailed south to New Zealand after helping to ferry a few hundred Marshall Islanders from an atoll polluted by US nuclear testing. It had planned to join a flotilla protesting French tests, but the ship was blown up by undercover French agents, killing a photographer aboard. Kiwi Prime Minister David Lange labelled the attack "a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism", for which France later apologised and paid compensation. The biggest after-effect was confirming New Zealand's status as a non-nuclear state, with huge support for bans on nuclear-powered vessels and nuclear weapons that continue to this day. "Our ship was targeted because Greenpeace and the campaign to stop nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific were so effective," Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman said. Mr Norman said the anniversary sail was not purely for commemorations on July 10, instead coming at a "pivotal moment when the fight to protect our planet's fragile life-support systems has never been as urgent or more critical". Conservationists accuse the Chris Luxon's government with a vast array of environmental degradations: fast-tracked seabed mining and new coalmines, intensive dairy and agriculture harming biodiversity and water standards, and abandoning Jacinda Ardern-era climate plans. "Here in Aotearoa, the Luxon government is waging an all-out war on nature, and on a planetary scale, climate change, ecosystem collapse, and accelerating species extinction pose an existential threat," Mr Norman said. The ship visiting is the third iteration of the Rainbow Warrior. The original lies on the seabed off Matauri Bay, north of Auckland, where it was scuttled to become a dive site and artificial reef. It will host open days in Auckland when it arrives, following maintenance in Cairns, where it currently is harboured.
Perth Now
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Rainbow Warrior in NZ return, 40 years after bombing
Forty years on from its bombing in Auckland - causing an almighty diplomatic rift and cementing New Zealand's anti-nuclear outlook - the Rainbow Warrior is returning. The Greenpeace-staffed yacht will dock in the City of Sails for the anniversary in July, completing a similar journey that its precursor vessel undertook in 1985. The Rainbow Warrior sailed south to New Zealand after helping to ferry a few hundred Marshall Islanders from an atoll polluted by US nuclear testing. It had planned to join a flotilla protesting French tests, but the ship was blown up by undercover French agents, killing a photographer aboard. Kiwi Prime Minister David Lange labelled the attack "a sordid act of international state-backed terrorism", for which France later apologised and paid compensation. The biggest after-effect was confirming New Zealand's status as a non-nuclear state, with huge support for bans on nuclear-powered vessels and nuclear weapons that continue to this day. "Our ship was targeted because Greenpeace and the campaign to stop nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific were so effective," Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Russel Norman said. Mr Norman said the anniversary sail was not purely for commemorations on July 10, instead coming at a "pivotal moment when the fight to protect our planet's fragile life-support systems has never been as urgent or more critical". Conservationists accuse the Chris Luxon's government with a vast array of environmental degradations: fast-tracked seabed mining and new coalmines, intensive dairy and agriculture harming biodiversity and water standards, and abandoning Jacinda Ardern-era climate plans. "Here in Aotearoa, the Luxon government is waging an all-out war on nature, and on a planetary scale, climate change, ecosystem collapse, and accelerating species extinction pose an existential threat," Mr Norman said. The ship visiting is the third iteration of the Rainbow Warrior. The original lies on the seabed off Matauri Bay, north of Auckland, where it was scuttled to become a dive site and artificial reef. It will host open days in Auckland when it arrives, following maintenance in Cairns, where it currently is harboured.
