Source: Greenpeace
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.
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.
