The third and final reading of the Fast-track Approvals Bill has been interrupted by 350 Aotearoa activists who draped banners in the house in protest.
The group dropped banners and chanted “this bill kills” from the public gallery.
It says the bill ignores Te Tiriti o Waitangi and violates Tino Rangatiratanga of whānau, hapū and iwi.
“We refuse to take this lying down - and extractive projects will never have the social licence to go ahead as we resist them at every turn,” said 350 spokesperson Adam Currie.
“The fast-track bill is anti-democratic, anti-climate, and anti-Te Tiriti.”
The banners highlighted 90 percent of the 27,000 submissions opposed the fast-track bill.
Assistant Speaker Greg O’Connor asked the group to leave and the activists have been barred from parliament.
They’re part of New Zealand branch of the global non-profit organisation 350 which aims to build a grassroots movement to address climate change.
Adam Currie said the action was not taken lightly.
“We have followed the official process to a tee - filing submissions, waiting patiently to be heard and so on. But it hasn’t worked, and democratic norms have been breached,” Currie said.
“We may have broken Parliament rules to make a point today, but Christopher Luxon’s government is not following the rules either.”
He said Luxon’s government disrespected the democratic process by withholding key information such as the project applications, from MPs and the public at every stage.
“They’re disrespecting democracy by barring thousands of submitters from being heard. And they’re disrespecting the process by shutting communities and whānau out of decision-making and robbing them of their appeal rights,” Currie said.
Currie said the bill would enable projects which are currently prohibited by local councils, the Environmental Protection Authority or the Supreme Court.
“Such as seabed mining in whale habitats and dumping raw sewage into the moana,” Currie said.
“The bill would allow coal mines on conservation land and enable an air-polluting waste incinerator project that the council, the school and the community all oppose.”
He said the bill would change the national character and core values as New Zealanders - away from care, honesty and the love for outdoors towards exploitation, recklessness and a system of exclusion.
Regardless of the bill passing, Currie said thousands of New Zealanders are ready to stop projects from being built in their communities.
