Greenpeace says the Government has poured fuel on the
growing backlash over its Conservation Amendment Bill, with
a revised version of the Bill retaining controversial
changes to the very purpose of New Zealand’s conservation
law.
The new Bill just released by the Environment
Select Committee retains clause 6ea, dubbed the “Shane Jones
Clause”, which rewrites the purpose of the Conservation Act
by requiring DOC to enable commercial activities on public
conservation land “to the greatest extent
practicable”.
Greenpeace spokesperson Gen
Toop says the Government is attacking the
fundamental principle that conservation land exists to be
protected, not exploited.
“The Government has just
confirmed it still plans to open up protected public
conservation land to private commercial exploitation. Mines,
private resorts, dams, shopping complexes – all on land and
waters that are supposed to be protected for nature to
thrive and the public to enjoy.
“People would not
accept the Government selling off public conservation land,
so instead it is trying to strip away the very protections
that make it conservation land in the first
place.”
“This is a cynical and underhanded move. You
cannot rewrite the law to enable corporations to exploit
conservation land ‘to the greatest extent practicable’
and still claim it is protected. And if protection is no
longer the purpose, it is no longer conservation land in any
meaningful sense,” says Toop.
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“I don’t believe for a
second that people will accept a future where public
conservation land in Aotearoa no longer means land protected
for nature and the public. These are places that are deeply
cherished by our people and that previous generations chose
to protect, not exploit.”
The Conservation Amendment
Bill originally proposed making it easier to sell or
exchange around five million hectares of public conservation
land. Following a massive public backlash to the Bill, the
Government committed to removing those specific
provisions.
But the revised Bill retains the purpose
change, which applies to the whole conservation estate,
including National Parks. It retains controversial changes
to Treaty provisions, visitor amenity areas and concession
rules as well as proposals to concentrate power with the
Minister.
Toop says, “Let’s be very clear: the
Conservation Amendment Bill is unsalvageable. From start to
finish, this Bill is rotten to its core. It must be thrown
out.”
“More than 90,000 submissions have been made
against this Bill and thousands are expected to march down
Queen Street against it in two weeks. The public continues
to make its opposition clear. It is time the Government
listened and abandoned the Bill altogether.
“Nobody
wants to show up to their favourite conservation park to go
hunting, camping, tramping, or fishing and discover that it
has been fenced off and turned into a private resort,
open-cast mine, or commercial development.”
Toop says
the coalition Government should remember what happened the
last time the Beehive tried to open up conservation land to
exploitation.
“In 2010, the John Key Government tried
to open some of our most treasured conservation land to
mining. It became a major political battleground – and the
Government lost. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to
the streets and forced it to back down.
“This
Government has made a huge political gamble by repeatedly
putting public conservation land in the firing line in an
election year. It has badly underestimated how deeply people
from all walks of life love these places – and how fiercely
they are prepared to defend them.”
Greenpeace, Forest
and Bird and more than 30 other organisations are calling on
people to join them to march against
the bill on September the 19th in
Auckland.
