{"id":605402,"date":"2026-09-19T15:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605402\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T15:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:08:13","slug":"march-for-nature-thousands-protest-conservation-amendment-bill-in-auckland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/605402\/","title":{"rendered":"March for Nature: Thousands protest Conservation Amendment Bill in Auckland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children and adults protest together<\/p>\n

The protest was planned to begin at Albert Park at 1pm with a rally and speeches, then travel down Wellesley St and Queen St before finishing at Te Komititanga Square – formerly known as Queen Elizabeth II square.<\/p>\n

Attendees took to social media this afternoon, sharing photos and videos capturing children and adults carrying colourful signs. <\/p>\n

\"ThousandsThousands took to the streets of Auckland today to march in protest against the Government\u2019s Conservation Amendment Bill. Photo \/ Greenpeace<\/p>\n

One person at the event, Geoff Leckie, told the Herald the atmosphere was \u201cunreal\u201d and \u201creally joyous\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am an old coot and have been doing the odd protest since the Vietnam War, but this was an eclectic bunch of very positive people who really want to make a point,\u201d Leckie said. <\/p>\n

Rongo\u0101 M\u0101ori Practitioner and researcher, Bianca Fallon, said she attended the event with her 10-year-old son, T\u0101whirim\u0101tea. <\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow we were right up the front, which was exciting. To support a kaupapa that should not even be up for discussion really hit home because we attended with our 10-year-old who is mana whenua; seeing everyone gather as one voice, the mauri was beautiful,\u201d Fallon said. <\/p>\n

Fallon said it was T\u0101whirim\u0101tea\u2019s first protest march.<\/p>\n

\"Rongo\u0101Rongo\u0101 M\u0101ori Practitioner and researcher, Bianca Fallon, said she attended the event with her 10-year-old son, T\u0101whirim\u0101tea.<\/p>\n

Greenpeace spokesperson Gen Toop said Prime Minister Christopher Luxon \u201cbadly underestimated\u201d how much New Zealanders cared about conservation land.<\/p>\n

Toop said protesters were sending a clear message to the Government that public conservation land was not theirs to exploit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not stand by while they dismantle its protections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forest and Bird spokesperson Richard Capie said the march showed how nature brought New Zealanders together.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no more powerful unifying force in Aotearoa than te taiao. The message to politicians is clear: stand up for nature, and New Zealanders will stand with you.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you sell off conservation land, weaken environmental protections, or put short-term profit ahead of our future, New Zealanders will hold you to account,\u201d Capie said. <\/p>\n

\"GreenGreen Party co-leader Marama Davidson attended the March for Nature in Auckland. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n

Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson<\/a> attended the march, where she announced that, if elected, the Greens would scrap changes she said were gutting environmental protections. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Green Party will put people and nature before corporate profits, we will ensure public conservation land is for nature, not for profits and that environment is protected from corporate greed,\u201d Davidson said.<\/p>\n

Conservation Minister Tama Potaka in June backtracked<\/a> by scrapping contentious clauses from the bill after public pressure<\/a> over fears large parts of conservation land would be sold.<\/p>\n

Potaka said he did not support land being sold en masse and said that was not his intention, but conceded he did not communicate the proposals well enough and removed them from the bill.<\/p>\n

Regional Development Minister Shane Jones said at the time New Zealand First was in favour of getting economic outcomes from conservation land and would push for it if re-elected.<\/p>\n

The updated Conservation Amendment Bill is yet to pass in Parliament.<\/p>\n

It is at the select committee stage and requires two more readings before passing into law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children and adults protest together The protest was planned to begin at Albert Park at 1pm with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9092,51164,51,3952,16574,1389,10039,2082,7237,78,1535,2061,111,43,139,69,25394,5412,2742,1865,6382],"class_list":["post-605402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-against","tag-amendment","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-bill","tag-conservation","tag-controversial","tag-for","tag-governments","tag-in","tag-march","tag-nature","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-protest","tag-streets","tag-thousands","tag-today","tag-took"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}