Ruth Dyson
Conservation Spokesperson

7 October 2011

Government should be all over oil disaster

The Government appears to have learned nothing from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill despite it being one of the worst ever environmental disasters, Labour’s Conservation spokesperson Ruth Dyson says.

“We can’t let the Rena grounding become our Gulf of Mexico. Wildlife experts are already saying fuel leaking into the water is a disaster. It’s not something waiting to happen. It is happening.

“The Government should be all over this. It needs to take the lead and work alongside the salvage company, and it needs to ensure every effort is made to disperse the oil,” Ruth Dyson said.

“Field testing various methods to do that are all well and good, but surely, after the American experience, we could have hoped contingency plans had already been worked out

“The area is teeming with marine life – fur seals, dolphins, orca, whales, snapper, trevally– and seabirds, including gannets, petrels and shearwaters.

“There is an awful sense of inevitability about the consequences of this, and not just to wildlife but to the shoreline as well.

“We have known that oil is hugely difficult to remove from the ecosystem for a long, long time.

“Given this Government’s use of urgency to push a raft of policies through this year, it’s a shame the word doesn’t have the same significance in this case,” Ruth Dyson said.

ENDS

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