The tree-huggers have always been able to pull a crowd; the biggest protests down Auckland’s Queen Street in recent years have been in support of the environment.
The biggest was 14 years ago when more than 20,000 people, opposed to National’s deluded idea to mine places like Great Barrier Island, filled the main drag. Rinse and repeat last weekend, when a slightly smaller, but still decent, crowd railed against National’s plans to fast-track big infrastructure projects and activities like, would you believe it, mining.
The National-led coalition government has either forgotten about the last turnout or genuinely believes it has the mandate to do this. It’s probably a bit of both. In any event, it took little heed of the most recent rally, with Shane Jones lifting the ban on oil and gas exploration the day after the protest, so we can “drill baby drill”.
The government may have decided, given the barely warm state of the economy and frustrations with the amount of time it takes to consent and build anything in New Zealand, that the protest is easy to ignore.
It could also claim that the Ardern administration’s plan to phase out coal was a fraud, because we ended up importing foreign coal to keep the lights on. The coal, not even NZ grade coal, plus the costs to get it here, meant our emissions increased rather than decreased.
But it heartens me that as citizens we haven’t rolled over entirely and will still get out and protest when we’re moved to. Just look at our farmers. Many of them fire up at the thought they might have to pay for any of the pollution agriculture creates. Given that’s nearly half of all our greenhouse gas emissions, you’d think they’d stop driving tractors to Parliament and instead demonstrate concrete plans for making amends.
Removing agriculture – along with animal processors and fertiliser companies – from our Emissions Trading Scheme from January 1 is the equivalent of giving a prisoner on death row a get-out-of-jail-free card.
So, we’ve got two groups – perhaps opposed to one another – willing to get out and stage regular protests. That said, this most recent show of defiance, coupled with regular farmer protests and the carkoi opposing the government’s policies toward Māori, doesn’t change my opinion that we’re among the most compliant people on Earth and selective about what we march over.
I sense the masses, caught in middle-class malaise, have no time to protest and are struggling to smile right now let alone stand for something. I also wonder why is it that we so openly and happily march for the survival of trees, snails and frogs – all valid concerns – but are slow to come out for people’s lives, incomes and livelihoods?
When there was talk in 2022 of removing KiwiSaver entitlements, we carried on with a sigh; now there’s discussion about removing certain holidays. I can only imagine the reaction in Europe if proposals to remove workers’ holidays were mooted. Here, we fall into place like sheep in a line.
And if we march for human rights abuses around the world, notably Gaza and the utter devastation there, why can’t we march for our own young, vulnerable and innocent babies who have been bashed to death? Our roll call of dead babies and children is shameful and shocking; it makes us an international disgrace. Surely that’s worth marching for?
One of the toughest stories I’ve worked on was that of the 2015 death of Moko Rangitoheriri, who was beaten to death by caregivers looking after him while his mother was with her eldest child at Auckland’s Starship Hospital. He was just three years old.
That his killers were able to make a plea bargain and face a manslaughter, rather than murder, charge horrifies me. It’s plain wrong, and I used the power of the television and radio programmes I fronted to highlight this. There were marches for Moko, demanding justice.
Right now, police are in the midst of a homicide investigation into the death of Te Kūiti 10-month-old Mustafa Ali. In Lower Hutt, it’s nearly 250 days since the death of Baby Ru, but the right to silence is winning and no one has yet been held to account.
As I said, it’s a rollcall of shame yet we don’t make a habit out of marching for these children. I want to know why we’re so silent on this. Is it because it makes us feel too uncomfortable?
Despite the government’s reaction to last weekend’s marches, we should never write-off “people power”. It still matters – those in power notice – but are we too busy being wage slaves to throw metaphorical rocks at the system we struggle within daily?
Apathy will finish us; laziness and complacency will ultimately destroy us and good people going silent is not the answer.
If we can march for rare frogs and insects, we can march and stand up for our children. Anything less adds to our national shame.
