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A lawyer for Te Whanau a Apanui says the Government doesn’t have the social licence to continue pushing off shore oil exploration.
The east coast iwi last year saw off Brazilian oil company Petrobras.
This weekend it flew flags on its beaches in solidarity with the Oil Free Seas protest flotilla which is circling Anadarko’s drilling ship the Noble Bob Douglas 100 nautical miles west of Raglan.
Dayle Takitimu says the Government is being told it’s time for a change in policy.
"I’m unsure whether they had a social licence for it even in the first place but even if they fetl they were acting on some mandate from a general election, that’s definitely been displaced now and people are standing up and saying ‘hey, climate change is an issue for us now and fossil fuels and oil spills, looking like the Gulf of Mexico, and your inability to plan or do anything about cleaning them up as we saw with the Rena," she says.
Ms Takitimu says Te Whanau a Apanui’s protest against Petrobras has made its dealings with the crown on other issues more difficult, but it’s a price it is willing to pay to protect its environment.
Copyright © 2013, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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