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This piece was well-hidden on the Radio New Zealand website. I restore it to the prominence it deserves - ahead of Baroness Thatcher.
Well spoken,
Peter Williams QC!
Lucy
Lawless, “Xena the Warrior Pricesses' protests against offshore
drilling with Greenpeace
Well spoken,
Peter Williams QC!
New
Zealand and New Zealanders have a proud history of maritime
protesters – against French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll, against
the visits of nuclear-armed American ships to NZ, against Japanese
whaling and other attacks on the environmment.
These
protests have always been peaceful, and it has always been the likes
of the French or the Japanese who have physically attacked the
protestors.
These
rights to protest are enshrined in New Zealand's Civil Rights Act as
well as in international law.
As
Peter Willams correctly points out – this is fascist legislation, to
be passed in the dead of light without Select Committee (or any
other democratic) scrutiny and applies only to protestors and not to
the corporates who come to rape our seas and to steal our oil in an
isolated and seismically-active area of the world.
I
salute you Peter Williams (and others like former PM Geoffery Palmer)
for speaking out.
Democratic freedoms seen as under attack
A group of prominent people says legislation against anti-mining protests is a breach of international law and attacks democratic freedoms.
9
April, 2013
In
amendments to the Crown Mining Bill, Energy Minister Simon Bridges is
proposing prison terms and fines of up to $100,000.
The
group's members include former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer and
Dame Anne Salmond, who say a legal opinion shows the proposals may
breach the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Sir
Geoffrey said the Government should reconsider the amendments.
Peter
Williams QC told Morning Report the legislation is
completely against New Zealanders and for foreign mining companies.
He
said it is fascist, draconian and shocking legislation
Government
Bid To Criminalise Sea Protests Slammed
Tuesday,
9 April 2013, 8:44 am
Press
Release: Joint Press Release
|
9
April 2013
Government
Bid To Criminalise Sea Protests Slammed
Move
Against International Law, Says Legal Advice
A
range of well-known New Zealand groups and individuals have today
slammed the government’s controversial move to criminalise aspects
of peaceful protests at sea.
In
a joint statement, Greenpeace, Rt Hon Geoffrey Palmer QC, Peter
Williams QC, WWF, Forest and Bird, Dame Anne Salmond, Rikirangi Gage
of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Sir Ngatata Love, the New Zealand Council of
Trade Unions, George Armstrong (founder of the Peace Squadron),
Amnesty International NZ, Lucy Lawless and many others, say that
Simon Bridges’ “new law is a sledgehammer designed to attack
peaceful protest” and is “being bundled through Parliament
without proper scrutiny despite its significant constitutional,
democratic and human rights implications.”
The
amendments to the Crown Minerals Bill, announced by Simon Bridges on
Easter Sunday, “breach international law, and attack our democratic
freedoms” say the group.
New
legal advice, also released today, “finds that the proposed
amendments to the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill
would breach international law in a number of respects.”
The
Crown Minerals Bill, due to be debated in Parliament today, will
create new offences against protest activity in the seas around New
Zealand, up to 200 miles from shore.
Greenpeace
Executive Director Bunny McDiarmid called the law, “an affront to
New Zealand democracy, and to our long held right and proud tradition
of peaceful protest at sea.”
“This
would affect the very same people who took their boats to seas to
confront nuclear ships in our harbours and sailed against French
nuclear testing in the Pacific.
“The
moratoriums on commercial whaling and drift-netting are further
historical achievements that were only possible because of the right
to sea-borne protest.
“The
most risky activity in the deep-sea for our economy and way of life
is not peaceful protest, it’s deep-sea oil drilling. You’d have
to be some kind of knucklehead not to realise that,” said
McDiarmid.
The
new laws are being proposed after the departure of Brazilian oil
giant Petrobras. A flotilla of protest vessels including several
yachts and Te Whanau a Apanui fishing vessel the San Pietro
confronted seismic testing by Petrobras off the East Cape in 2010.
The
proposals include penalties up to $50,000 for an individual, up to 12
months imprisonment and up to $100,000 for a body corporate, and
enable the Navy or a police officer to nominate assistants who can
stop and detain a ship entering an exclusion zone, remove a person
from an exclusion zone. All these parties carry next to no criminal
or civil liabilities for anything that happens as a result.
--
The
full text of the joint statement, plus the signatories, is below.
--
Statement
on Crown Minerals Bill Amendment 2013
In
defence of the right to peaceful protest at sea
This
proposed new law is an assault on the honourable Kiwi values of
having a say and being able to stand up for our country.
Simon
Bridges’ new law is a sledgehammer designed to attack peaceful
protest at sea. It is being bundled through Parliament without proper
scrutiny despite its significant constitutional, democratic and human
rights implications.
New
Zealanders have a rich history of protesting at sea. It is a part of
who we are. The boats that set sail to stop French nuclear testing
led to a proud legacy that defines us, and our country.
The
proposed amendments breach international law, and attack our
democratic freedoms.
That’s
why we, the below signed, strongly oppose Simon Bridges’ proposed
amendment to the Crown Minerals Bill.
Greenpeace
George
Armstrong, Founder Peace Squadron
Rt.
Hon. Geoffrey Palmer QC
Peter
Williams QC
Rikirangi
Gage, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui
Sir
Ngatata Love
Dame
Anne Salmond
Jeanette
Fitzsimons
Bryan
Gould, Former Chancellor of Waikato University
Lucy
Lawless
WWF-New
Zealand
Forest
and Bird
ECO
Coal
Action Network Aotearoa
Coromandel
Watchdog of Hauraki
Peace
Movement Aotearoa
NZ
Council of Trade Unions, Helen Kelly
Sustainability
Council, Simon Terry
Amnesty
International NZ
350.Aotearoa
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