Action on oceans needs to begin at home

"Action begins at home - it is great that we are signing on to an international partnership on oceans," said Green Party oceans spokesperson Gareth Hughes, "but where is the Governments action on oceans?"

The Government today announced it was signing up to a global partnership on oceans at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

"New Zealanders love our beaches and oceans, but don't want our Government to sign up to international partnerships if they are simply being used as a smokescreen to obscure the Government's poor environmental record," said Mr Hughes.

"It seems to be just yet another non-binding political accord," said Green Party global affairs spokesperson Dr Kennedy Graham who is currently attending Rio+20.

"We need to be properly honouring international commitments and more importantly we need to be doing our bit at home," said Mr Hughes.

"New Zealand's oceans are under threat from risky oil exploration, overfishing and the Government is not meeting targets for area of ocean protected.

"The Government is signing off on risky oil exploration at depths greater than that of the Deepwater Horizon's blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Successive governments have failed to act on marine protection - the Marine Reserves Bill has been languishing in legislative limbo since 2002.

"We have had a 10% target since 2000, yet we still only have 0.41% of our waters protected and the Minister is actually declining reserve applications.

"That the Minister is proclaiming the environmental benefits of the Exclusive Economic Zone bill at Rio is baffling when this bill doesn't deal with protection and is simply a rubber stamping regime for risky and damaging resource extraction.

"The Government is failing to protect endangered species such as the Maui's dolphin and New Zealand Sea Lion from unsustainable, indiscriminate fishing practices," said Mr Hughes