Minto: Anadarko’s oil ship has arrived at the drilling site only to find six boats from Oil Free Seas Flotilla already there – Bravo! The Texan oil giant will be drilling in 1.5km of water – a hugely risky venture from a company with little experience in deep water. After earlier seaborne campaigns off the East Coast the Minister of Energy and Resources Simon Bridges was lobbied by the big oil companies and agreed to push through parliament tough new laws to demonise and attempt to paralyse sea-borne protests. Bending over for the big oil companies was easy for Bridges whose National government regularly changes the law to suit the corporate sector – Warner Brothers and Skycity for example. Bridges probably thought the threat of huge fines and long terms of imprisonment would be enough to deter protests but kiwis are made of sterner stuff. While this ministerial prat was still in short pants New Zealanders took to the water against nuclear armed and nuclear powered warships in the 1980s to establish our now cherished nuclear free status. His National government was on the wrong side of history then just as he is on the wrong side of history now.
Posted on: Wed, 20 Nov 2013 03:28:50 +0000