Te Pāti Māori Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer MP was to travel to Lisbon, Portugal to help build an international coalition against deep sea mining at the United Nations Oceans Conference 2022. This comes off the back of a 36,000 strong petition to ban seabed mining in Aotearoa, and the win of Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru and environmentalists in the Supreme Court last year.

Ngarewa-Packer will be co-hosting a side-event as a member of the Pacific Parliamentarians Alliance on Deep Sea Mining alongside Pacific leaders such as Vanuatu opposition leader Ralph Regenvanu and former prime minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga.

“I’m looking forward to working with activists, parliamentarians and policy makers from around the world to build a global alliance against seabed mining, and convince world leaders of the destruction it will cause to our oceans and climate,” said Ngarewa-Packer.

“Sadly I will not be attending as part of the NZ delegation, as I would not agree to being gagged and silenced by the government who are sitting on the fence, rather than fighting against this environmental disaster.

“My message to Jacinda Ardern, David Parker, and world leaders is clear, get your head out of the sand and make a stand with indigenous communities for healthy oceans and a stable climate.

“Haggling over regulating an inherently unsafe practice is pointless, we need bold leadership to put a stop to this once and for all. We don’t need to be mining our seabed and threatening at risk marine life when we could be mining e-waste.

“Te Pāti Māori are proud to stand alongside global allies from indigenous communities and environmental movements in pushing for global deep sea mining ban” said Ngarewa-Packer.

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