Environmental Threats and Community Resistance
What should we do when the world is spinning too fast? Should we make more motorways to cut three seconds off a trip from wherever to wherever? Should we limit and undermine the Te Tiriti rights of tangata whenua? Should we shut people out of local decision-making? Should we remove protection from freshwater and mine the hell out of the Peninsula?
As the government becomes a development lobby scramble at the expense of the environment and much more, shall we give up and shut up?
Unsurprisingly, I don’t think we should. History tells me that silence is violence. Whether it’s the Gloriavale cult (where I spent a disturbing five hours in 2015), removing school lunches, or mining the forest and undermining the climate, we should not shut our eyes.
Naturally people feel overwhelmed in the face of the blitzkrieg of attacks on some of our values, but nobody has to do everything; we need to follow our passions but join the dots!
It’s important to reject the hate that is being validated – hate towards tangata whenua rights, hate towards LGBTIQ+ identities, hate towards dolphins even. As a wise leader said to me “Hard on issues, soft on people”. Sometimes when I face trolls on X (Twitter), I forget that one.
There are two new pieces of law underway which really don’t help anyone. The first is the ‘Te Tiriti principles Bill’, which is really about advancing a re-definition of Te Tiriti without the people the Crown signed it with, and pushing for a ‘Treaty’ referendum. The referendum will no doubt say something about ‘equality’, which actually means we all should be treated the same as of course we are all the same. That is not true and not fair. The subtext is we are all Pākehā, or should be.
As in Australia, many citizens do have a growing respect for indigenous rights but the referenda can be lost if the wealthy far right propaganda sways the uninformed that it’s all too risky and confusing. That is what happened in the ‘The Voice’ referendum in Australia and it could easily happen here. The education system here has deliberately avoided teaching the authentic history of this country and recent efforts to do this are now being undermined by the government. So how do you vote without context and understanding?
The other piece of law is known as the ‘Fast Track Bill’. It is basically the most unfair and dangerous attack on the environment and public right-to-be-heard since the 1970s. The essence is that proposals to extract from the environment (by mining or other companies) can skip the RMA and public process; requests for the government to Fast Track projects will mean these can go ahead. A panel of four people will be given a few months to suggest conditions – but if the conditions are seen as too tough by the Ministers in charge of our resources, those conditions can be rejected. There is one goal: allow the exploitation of natural resources without our right to challenge. The Ministers for the Environment and Conservation are not included in these decisions. Tangata whenua rights are also severely limited; if they don’t have ownership through settlement, they do not have a say.
I really wish I was exaggerating, but sadly this is the plan. The intent has been clearly stated in Parliament and it includes opening up most of our area to gold mining.
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki has done 40 years’ work to create legal protection for much of our area but this is now at risk from the Bill. We will not be giving up but the avenues for protection of our waters, mountains and forests are far more limited. The best we can do is ask our communities to stand beside us, support Te Tiriti and reject the Fast Track. I have met people who are now turning off the news and focusing on their local lives. It’s very understandable but it won’t stop the blitzkrieg or the Fast Track. It’s time to connect with each other and stand in unity; our power is in each other.
On a perfect autumn Easter Sunday, we swam in the crisp transparent ocean at Hahei. I felt that extraordinary joy only the sea can give, which cannot be taken for granted. A peerless sky, a generous sun and a place made of history, from its waters to its headlands.
Hauraki is a wonderful place to live, we are fortunate to live within the rohe of the many Hauraki iwi working to rebuild their home place. The rest of us cannot live here without recognition of this fragile extraordinary land and its brutal history, without being willing to look after it for future generations. Governments and corporations come and go but that responsibility remains.
Words by Catherine Delahunty
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