An open letter to Prime Minister Luxon - Will he listen?

NZ's Four leading environmental organisations issue joint letter calling on the Prime Minister to reject the Regulatory Standards Bill

Excerpt: Open Letter to the Prime Minister of Aotearoa New Zealand, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon

Re: The Regulatory Standards Bill

..This legislation would:

Impose financial penalties on environmental action, making it a new and unprecedented expectation that the Crown would compensate corporations when laws to protect nature or the climate affect the use or value of their property;

Undermine environmental protections by prioritising individual freedoms and private property rights over the health of nature and the public interest;

Establish an unelected Regulatory Standards Board, appointed by the Minister for Regulation, with the power to hear and amplify complaints from companies and pressure the Government over any policy inconsistent with a rigid set of principles.

The bill also explicitly excludes Te Tiriti o Waitangi from its set of “good” law-making principles. This risks undermining decades of progress towards incorporating Treaty principles into environmental governance and will likely result in legal confusion and uncertainty….

The principles that all future governments would be required to consider under the Regulatory Standards Bill omit critical aspects of environmental stewardship and elevate individual freedoms and private property rights above all other considerations.

This ideology has no place in our legal system here in Aotearoa, where we have long valued fairness and collective responsibility rather than individual entitlement to harm nature or others under the guise of freedom.

At a time of escalating climate change and declining biodiversity, this Bill would make it harder – not easier – for governments to act in the national interest…

Yours sincerely,

Dr Russel Norman,
Executive Director
Greenpeace Aotearoa

Nicola Toki,
Chief Executive
Forest and Bird

Gary Taylor CNZM QSO
Chief Executive
Environmental Defence Society

Dr Kayla Kingdon-Bebb
Chief Executive
WWF-New Zealand

Full Letter: Press Release - Nick Young

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Your Regulatory Standards Bill Submission, Small Or Large, Counts — 10 Days Left To Submit

What does a libertarian future look like?

It also means that where many years ago, Chris Bishop “hinted” at the possibility of his tobacco employers suing NZ, under an RSB law, that would becom a firm reality (video below)

It will also chill public health professionals, academics, journalists and environmentalists from speaking out, threatening free speech, while tearing away at the fabric of our community, and giving those with wealth and in corporations oversized powers.¹ It creates an easy legal framework by which those with money and power can sue individuals, and any NZ Government that tries to protect nature, communities and health.

It means that if you cherish our wildlife and nature, you will become very quickly almost powerless to protect it.

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Links to submit:

• Parliament NZ - RSB Submission

• Greenpeace Submission Template

Resources to guide you:

• PSA

• Melanie Nelson & Dr Ryan Ward & co. Submission Guide

• Mike Riversdale Guide

• Ngāti Koata Iwi

Remember:

1. Even if it’s only a couple of sentences to tell them that you firmly reject the Bill, do it anyway

2. Don’t copy and paste others’ submissions word for word

3. NZ First have opened the possibility that if there is ardent opposition, they might withdraw their support. As remote as this possibility is, it’s a line worth pursuing for us

4. You have 6 days left - please submit like you mean it.

1. Dr Ryan Ward