The Luxon Government has just introduced a bill into the
House that would make it legal to kill protected wildlife.
Greenpeace understands the Bill is being rushed through all
stages under urgency tonight, without public consultation or
proper scrutiny.
The
amendment to the Wildlife Act, New Zealand’s
foundational wildlife protection law, would allow the
Director-General of Conservation to grant companies
permission to kill native animals if they get in the way of
projects like roads, mines or
dams.
Greenpeace has condemned the move as
a clear and dangerous escalation of the Luxon Government’s
war
on nature.
“No one wants to see
roading or mining companies handed a licence to kill kiwi –
but that’s exactly what this Bill makes possible,” says
Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop.
“This is a law change
no one asked for – except the corporations that see wildlife
as an obstacle to profit. It’s being rushed through in the
dead of night so the public can’t even have a
say,”
“If this Bill passes, it will go down in history
as the moment the Government chose corporate profits over
protecting wildlife that is already on the brink of
extinction,” says Toop.
Greenpeace is calling for the
immediate withdrawal of the amendment and for the Government
to strengthen, not weaken, protections for the country’s
threatened wildlife.
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The Bill comes after a landmark
High Court decision in the
case of the Environmental Law Initiative v The
Director-General of the Department of Conservation (DOC) and
others. The case challenged DOC’s decision to grant Waka
Kotahi permission to kill wildlife during construction of
the Mt Messenger Bypass in Taranaki.
The Judge ruled
that the permit was unlawful, upending years of DOC’s
practice of granting permits which authorised the killing of
wildlife under the Wildlife Act.
“The Luxon Government
is changing the law to legalise what the High Court just
ruled is illegal,” says Toop. “We’re talking about the
kiwi – our national icon – being sacrificed so a company can
build a road faster. That’s just not who we are as a
country.”
Greenpeace says the move is part
of a wider pattern of stripping away safeguards for land, fresh
water, and wildlife such as the repeal of the oil and
gas ban, the introduction of the Fast-Track
Act, and the recently announced RMA
reforms.
“Once a species is gone,
it’s gone forever. We should be strengthening protections
for endangered wildlife, not making it legal to kill them,”
says
Toop.
