The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, Wildlife Law Change A Betrayal Of Public Trust

[Beringia]

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2505/S00062/wildlife-law-change-a-deep-betrayal-of-public-trust.htm

From May 8, 2025

The Green Party is appalled by the Government’s use of urgency to rewrite the Wildlife Act–without consultation, without an impact statement, and in direct response to a court ruling in favour of protecting wildlife. “The Government is rushing legislation through Parliament to make it easier to kill kiwi and other precious wildlife," says Green Party co-leader and Conservation spokesperson, Marama Davidson.

“Our native taonga (native birds, plants and animals) should be treasured. They connect us to our whenua and whakapapa, and form a critical component of our national identity.

Whenua is both land and the nourishment of new life. Meaning is embedded pre-linguistically, in middens, stone circles, ancient dwellings, wells, holy trees, mountains, rivers, forests, burial chambers, carvings on rocks, rocks themselves, waterfalls, lakes, and secret groves. Among other places.

Whakapapa means all things are inter-related, therefore rights are not exclusively the domain of humans, but belong to all species, pieces of systems, like rivers and glens, giant lizards and leeches.

“This law change comes directly off the back of a court ruling that found it was unlawful for the Department of Conservation (DOC) to permit developers to kill protected species. “Rather than respecting that ruling, and learning from it, the Government is rewriting the Act to make that killing legal. It’s cynical, calculated, and utterly, utterly devastating.

“For the Minister of Conservation to say only days ago that nature is ‘part of our national identity, economy and way of life,’ then allow this legislation to bulldoze through the House is a disgrace. “You can’t claim to value our biodiversity while forcing through law changes to make it easier to destroy it. This isn’t about protecting biodiversity—it’s about protecting profit and feeding corporate greed. “When nature is only valued for its economic benefit, the outcome is inevitable: destruction. This Government has made it clear that when forced to choose between the interests of industry or the interests of the law, the public, and the environment, it will always choose the bulldozer.

“Our Green Budget will outline our bold vision for an Aotearoa that works with nature, not against it,” says Marama Davidson.


“The people have spoken” Marama Davidson’s full Treaty Principles Bill speech in the House last week



https://www.instagram.com/reel/DIat4RhJPVJ/

A Kiwi



https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/featured-creature-kiwi/