MANA MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
4 October 2011

MANA says Government should come clean on big oil meetings

MANA environmental spokesperson Angeline Greensill says the Government must come clean over their meetings this week with American and Chinese oil companies.

Mrs Greensill says from the beginning MANA supported Te Whanau o Apanui and Ngati Porou when they stood up against Brazilian oil giant Petrobras which wants to drill exploration wells in the Kumara Trench off the East Coast.

“We of course were formed when the other parties agreed to the ownership and control of the foreshore and seabed being taken from Maori so that our resources can be handed to foreign plunderers which the oil companies are.

Mrs Greensill says the foreshore and seabed land confiscation rubber stamped by the Maori Party and National Party has cemented the Government’s ability to open our waters to anti-environmental oil speculation.

“As well as the issues of Maori ownership there is the huge risk to the environment from the activities that these multi-national companies, that the government is courting. Such activities as the proposed drilling off the East Coast at nearly twice the depth of similar drilling in the Gulf of Mexico which caused one of the greatest environmental catastrophes in the world.

"Why would we allow the deepest and most dangerous waters around NZ to be drilled for oil if the environmental safeguards are not there and the revenue returned is a pittance? How can this Government sell our clean green brand so cheaply for big oil crumbs?

“On behalf of all New Zealanders we demand the details of these closed door negotiations currently going on between the government and these huge oil companies be made public.

“It is our environmental future that this Government is flogging off."

Mrs Greensill says no New Zealander can rest easy when the government is licking up to these companies in secret.

She says if ever there was a case for open government it is now because our future is at stake and our environment is at huge risk.

ENDS

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