Heads up, there’s plans to demolish Nelson! Ridiculous, right? Well, it’s not far from the truth – and 31 protestors blockaded ANZ across the motu on the 8th of August to demonstrate their disapproval.
Bathurst Resources Ltd, Aotearoa’s biggest mining company, has a Fast Track application in the works for permission to mine twenty million tonnes of coal over the next 25 years. And whoopsie daisy, they’ll just have to demolish an area the size of Nelson: Denniston Plateau. The area is special in that so many of Aotearoa’s threatened and endangered species call it home. The roroa (great spotted kiwi), endangered Powelliphanta snails and West Coast Green Gecko are a few inhabitants of this unique, fourty-million year old plateau.
Students Via and Liz were among twenty-nine members of Climate Liberation Aotearoa (CLA) blockading the central Dunedin ANZ branch. CLA is a nationwide group who operate under the principles of climate, justice, and direct action – taking actual, physical action to facilitate change. Liz tells me that ANZ is the only bank in New Zealand that is still providing banking services to Bathurst Resources, so they’ve become a target. Christchurch and Wellington banks were also targeted – the latter attended by Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
On the day of the protest, CLA’s primary goal was to close the bank. It was a success. Just under three hours after they got into position in front of the entrance, the bank closed at 11am after police arrived on the scene. “We’re not going to allow ANZ to continue operating if this is what they’re doing with their finances,” Liz told Critic. In a statement to media (as reported by the ODT and Stuff) ANZ said that the bank was open to engaging with protest groups – having met with climate group 350 Aotearoa previously – and that it had no direct lending exposure over $1 million to coal mining customers. Their current policy is to not lend to new thermal coal mines or expansions/extensions to the operating life of existing coal mines.
Of course, protests don’t happen in a vacuum. Earlier in the year, Critic Te Ārohi interviewed Via the week after they returned from an encampment protest on the Denniston Plateau. They set up a tent conveniently (or inconveniently, depending on what you read) right in the middle of the proposed mine site. “You see this really stark contrast between the areas they’ve done a bit of exploratory stuff [...] there was nothing, it’s scraped totally bare,” Via said. “There’s just a line and then suddenly there’s all of these mānuka and kānuka and all this wildlife, it’s kiwi habitat.”
Two members of the CLA are, as of writing, currently back in the coal buckets up in Bathurst’s existing mine in Stockham, a move that got a few protestors in legal trouble back in May. Via and Liz explained it’s a “direct way they’ve been limiting the amount of coal [Bathurst] has been able to take out, so they’ve had to use trucks instead.” But not everyone can drop everything to swing to and fro in a coal bucket 83 metres above the ground. Liz tells me that when everyone bands together, they can actually make a difference. “It’s beyond just marching the street, it’s bringing people together with a common cause,” she said.
When Critic asks about the response from passers-by, Liz said there were definitely a few pissed off people personally inconvenienced by the bank closure. CLA protested with the intention of disrupting ANZ’s operations. “Communicating to people that our way of life is going to have to change if we want to survive,” says Liz. The Denniston Plateau is just one example of the Government continuing to act with short term profit in mind, they tell Critic.
Liz encouraged bigger picture thinking. “The climate crisis is going to inconvenience the rest of your life [...] it’s about putting things into perspective.” Via added, “The South Dunedin [ANZ] was open if they really needed to go.” Despite this, most people (beyond angry comments on ODT’s article) were supportive. While they got some heckling, Liz reckoned it’s a pretty easy cause for people to rally behind. Because conservation is valued so highly in New Zealand, protecting the Denniston Plateau is something people tend to empathise with.
Asked why they protested, Via and Liz replied that they find it so much more empowering than feeling depressed while doom-scrolling climate change on TikTok. There’s only so much soft-plastic recycling, public-transport-taking, switching-from-disposable-vaping we can do to save the planet. Liz said, “Once people realise that actually you can stand up to these policy changes and these huge businesses […] if there are enough of us, we can actually make a difference.” They encouraged any students interested to visit their website or join Tuesday meetings at Knox Church.