Greenpeace Aotearoa has slammed the Labour Government’s failure to support Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer’s Seabed Mining Prohibition Amendment Bill, and instead opt for a select committee inquiry into seabed mining.

The bill is scheduled to be read in parliament next Wednesday.

Greenpeace Aotearoa seabed mining campaigner James Hita says Labour’s decision is a missed opportunity to protect the ocean.

"The health of the ocean is at stake and the government should do the right thing by standing up for ocean life and all of us who depend on it."

"Instead of supporting a bill which could establish further protection of the ocean, Labour appears to be playing politics with ocean protection. We are in a biodiversity and climate crisis and we need decisive action, not more delay," says Hita.

Greenpeace Aotearoa has called for the Government to ban the "destructive industry" from the waters of Aotearoa with more than 30,000 signing their petition.

The Seabed Mining Prohibition Amendment Bill would put in place a nationwide ban on seabed mining consents within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the coastal waters of Aotearoa; prohibits applications for exploration rights for seabed mining; and retrospectively withdraws existing seabed mining consents and exploration rights.

"I lay a wero, a challenge, today to Minister Parker and the Labour Party. We know seabed mining is destructive and bad for the oceans, and we know that New Zealanders don’t want it here. Ban it yourself" says Hita.

"Over the last decade, with the support of thousands of people, and alongside community groups like Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, iwi and hapū, we helped to successfully fight off three applications to mine the seabed in Aotearoa’s waters. But we shouldn’t have to and mining companies will keep coming until the Government acts to ban the industry in the waters of Aotearoa."

"Deep sea mining is a threat to biodiversity including the pygmy blue whales in the South Taranaki Bight, Māui dolphins and the tiny kororā - little blue penguin.

Greenpeace is calling on everyone who values the ocean and the life it supports to add their voice to the call to ban seabed mining by signing the petition.

The campaign went all the way to the Supreme Court, which quashed the 2017 Environmental Protection Authority’s green light to Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) to mine the South Taranaki Bight. TTR has so far spent almost ten years trying to get the go-ahead to dig up 50 million tonnes of seabed in a 66 square kilometre area in the South Taranaki Bight, every year for 35 years, to access five million tonnes of iron ore, and dump the rest back into the ocean.

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