by Catherine Delahunty
Yesterday the communities of the Te Tairawhiti and Whakatane again lit fires on their beaches to highlight their opposition to the offshore oil drilling proposals. They are highlighting the lack of legal opportunities for community input as well as the sheer madness of risking the environment for a fossil fuel. The hapu of Ngati Porou and Te Whanau Apanui, who are the customary owners within the current application area, are getting strong support from hapu and communities across the Bay of Plenty and in Turanga nui a Kiwa(Gisborne).
As Dayle Takitimu of Te Whanau Apanui said on Radio New Zealand on Sunday, the protection of foreshore and seabed is at stake. She pointed out that the campaign against the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act was about protection of the coast and ocean from inappropriate developments such as oil drilling. She said she expected others as well as the Greens to step up and loudly acknowledge the customary rights of the kaitiaki of the manawhenua.
The Coastal and Marine Area Bill currently before Parliament is no help with this issue and that’s one of the reasons why the Green Party are voting against it.
I was personally motivated to go on the hïkoi in support of customary rights to the takutai moana (foreshore and seabed) because both Labour and National have been flirting with global oil interests in our economic zone for some years. Now its out in the open. I have more faith in the customary owners than the Government to act in the long term interests of all our mokopuna and protect the mauri (life essence) of the food chain. Te Tairawhiti is the first place in the world to see the light and they are leading a vital campaign.
I will continue supporting the coastal bonfire vigils on the East Coast. If you want to join us, check out the Facebook page Stop the Drilling on our East Coast and the associated website.
Published in Environment & Resource Management by Catherine Delahunty on Mon, October 4th, 2010
Tags: bonfire, east coast, oil drilling
More posts by Catherine Delahunty | more about Catherine Delahunty
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
I would like to recommend the book ‘The plundered Planet’ by Paul Collier
Why We Must–and How We Can–Manage Nature for Global Prosperity, to all the green MPs and any others involved in this discussion.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Economics/Policy/?view=usa&ci=9780195395259
This is a top class, erudite book about natural resources and how they could and should be used, how they can bless or curse a country and how this depends in turn on how well the country is governed. It contrasts the successes of Norway against the failure of Nigeria to capture the wealth extracted from their country.
Although the heart of many here is to just say no way never to any sort of resource exploitation you may find that starting with the point of view that resource extraction could benefit the country and the long list of things that you have to get right in order to make it so leads to a clear understanding of why you might not explore or extract resources.
We can all imagine the ‘cost’ side of the equation to the environment, the powers that be want to focus on the benefit – and we therefore need to make sure that this calculation and any possible implementation is done right. Taking into account the difficulty so many nations have had in converting natural assets into sovereign wealth.
Exploitation of natural assets can lead to reduction of democracy and increases in corruption. A source of independent income to the government of the day lowers the amount of income taken by taxing the people – and thus reduces accountability by the same amount. If everything the government can spend comes from direct taxation the people will hold the government to account for every cent they spend.
Many nations around the world have been through a period of boom caused by the exploitation of a natural non renewable asset – only to find at the end that they are worse off than they would have been if they had left it in the ground.
As the asset in the ground becomes steadily more valuable the motivation of extractive companies – especially oil companies to corrupt public officials becomes steadily stronger. NZ has a high reputation for honest government – but my guess is that we are all human and really no one has needed to bribe NZ officials much in the past.
I don’t want to see a predictable and dismissible storm of protest from the left and greens on this issue. I want to see a bunch of people who are more informed, more in touch with the rest of the world, leading and offering hard core examples as to why this activity is not necessary and not good for NZ.
As I said – read the book.
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They lit fires..?
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Good onya Catherine.. just confirms that N-ACT put : Money first & environment… LAST
Kia-ora
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Hi Catherine, I personally have ties to this land on the east coast but I live about 4-5 hours away. I can’t belive the national government is comfortable with the risks associated with drilling off the east coast. It’s so isolated and beautiful there. The bones of my ancestors lie there! The people of the east coast use the water and coastline for food, employment and recreation and so do many visitors to that area year round. If you have been there you understand how precious that area, it’s ecosystems and it’s history is. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do to help with this protest action from a distance?
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I’m suprised that the Greens are not trumpeting this job creation project in the same region.
http://www.3news.co.nz/Seafood-deal-brings-900-jobs-to-Opotiki/tabid/421/articleID/176848/Default.aspx
Or is the fact that it is Chinese funded a hurdle?
How come local iwi did not fund this project?
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As for Gerrit’s comments on the sea cucumber project for Opotiki, we met with the Mayor of Opotiki John Forbes last week to hear about this project. We have not taken a position on it yet but of course we are keen to see quality jobs in the Eastern Bay. The joint venture may or may not provide that type of work. I live now in an area where the acquaculture industry is providing work – some of it on pretty low pay and I see the same families in poverty who were poor 20 years ago. Some big forestry joint ventures around Opotiki have also failed to enrich the locals but we will keep looking at this project.
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