The Green Party has announced they will pass a Healthy Ocean Act to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 through a new framework that upholds Te Tiriti, create an independent Ocean Commission to advise the government on how best to do it, and put a Green Minister for Oceans and Fisheries in charge of making it happen.

For decades, successive governments have made the political choice to put short-term corporate profit ahead of what’s right for people and the ocean. Climate change, plastic pollution, habitat destruction, deep sea mining, and the plunder of overfishing have pushed the ocean to the brink.

Pamela Grealey, the Green Party candidate for Coromandel says “The Green Party has a bold, achievable, and brilliantly simple plan: cover large parts of Aotearoa’s ocean, including around the Coromandel's extensive coast, in protected areas that uphold te Tiriti and put a third of the ocean off-limits to fishing, mining and other destructive industries. In particular, this policy further strengthens the efforts to revitalise the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana Maritime Park which borders our electorate as far south as Whiritoa.”

“Our plan to protect the ocean is based on what the Green Party has so successfully achieved for climate action in Aotearoa - a legally binding target backed by independent, expert advice on how to achieve it,” says Grealey

"A vote for the Green Party will put us in a strong position to negotiate for a Green Minister for Oceans and Fisheries who can make this plan happen. Without a healthy ocean, we cannot have a healthy planet. It is as simple as that. We cannot have healthy communities, with food to eat, and clean air to breathe, and we cannot tackle climate change."

“The ocean is our life support system, and when that system starts to break down, it affects every one of us. Over the last six years, the Green Party has taken more action on climate change than all previous governments before us. The time is now to do the same for the ocean,” she says.

“Our plan to protect the ocean is based on what we have so successfully achieved for climate action in Aotearoa - a legally binding target backed by independent, expert advice on the best way to achieve it.

“Our plan for a Healthy Ocean Act will do the same for the ocean that the Zero Carbon Act has done for the climate."

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