Greenpeace Aotearoa is condemning a Government MP’s proposed Members’ Bill, which aims to prevent New Zealanders from seeking action on climate change through the legal system.

National Party MP Joseph Mooney’s Climate Change (Restriction on Civil Proceedings) Bill seeks to establish policy that prohibits tort claims related to climate change.

Greenpeace spokesperson Amanda Larsson say, "This bill would have a chilling effect on New Zealanders’ democratic rights and our ability to secure a liveable future for our kids and grandkids.

"The judicial system is a cornerstone of democracy because checks and balances are needed to protect the public interest. This Bill attempts a complete overreach of executive political power."

The Bill specifically references the legal case Smith v Fonterra, in which iwi leader Mike Smith has sued Fonterra and New Zealand’s other biggest polluters for the harm they have done in contributing to climate change. The case is groundbreaking and has received significant attention in New Zealand and overseas.

"It is alarming the lengths that Luxon’s Government will go to secure wealthy industry executives’ profits over the rights of regular people," says Larsson.

"This is just the latest chapter in Luxon’s War on Nature, which is tearing down environmental, climate and health protections at the behest of corporate lobbyists.

"Climate change is an existential threat, and we’re in the fight for our lives. New Zealanders want a future for their kids, with clean land, air and water. But Luxon’s vision of New Zealand is an industrial wasteland churning out milk powder and minerals in exchange for poisoned drinking water, dead oceans and more extreme floods, cyclones and droughts."

Mooney’s Members’ Bill was submitted hot on the heels of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ state of the nation speech, in which he criticised the Paris Climate Agreement. ACT leader and soon-to-be Deputy Prime Minister, David Seymour, has also recently questioned whether New Zealand should remain a signatory to the deal.

"It’s time for Christopher Luxon to explain to New Zealanders where his government really stands on climate change. You cannot claim to be committed to climate action while your ministers and MPs run rings around you, threatening to abandon efforts to protect our children’s future and take away people’s democratic rights in the process."

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