I recently visited the Denniston coal plateax for the first time since the end of the Save Happy Valley occupation.
Last time I was there, all that could be seen of the coal mining operation at the top of the Bridle Track was a pile of rusting scrap. It was great to see all the work #DOC has done to preserve the site and make it safer to explore, and to surface its history with info boards full of photos and explanations.
We now know the downsides of mining and burning coal, and it's past time we stopped. But the people who lived and worked at Denniston didn't know that. We can still celebrate the hard work and creativity coal mining communities brought to their labour.
What those workers were doing then, was the equivalent of what those building hydro, geothermal, wind and solar generation are now. Supplying a critical domestic energy source to a rapidly developing country.
Surely it's better for businesses, as much as for everyone else, if consents go through a robust, structured process. Where people putting information on the public record about the potential consequences of development plans get paid to do so, in front of a neutral tribunal, before the company starts work.
But it seems that instead, the NatACTs want businesses to go back to the 1990s/2000s. When they routinely had their operations disrupted by Direct Action campaigns, spent millions on defensive PR and spying on activists, and eventually got shut down anyway.
If that's how they want to play it, I sure as shit won't be the only Direct Action veteran getting ready to put my body on the line once again. To defend Papatūānuku, shoulder to shoulder with younger greenies.
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