On 6 March 2023, New Zealand’s government published a new land transport plan with climate change as the number one priority. This was to be achieved by improving public transport and restructuring how much funding would be spent on road infrastructure for vehicle use.
By afternoon of the same day, people saw a U-turn as the powers that be were reminded that there were still communities severely cut off following Cyclone Gabrielle. Communities flooded, houses destroyed, roads simply gone, and people left reliant on helicopters to deliver groceries.
The government faced a serious problem which led to a significant reconsideration of the financial priority they had placed on climate goals. If only policy were this practical, this concerned with other health outcomes, what else would be different?
The New Zealand predicament
I choose this example of the land transport plan because it is recent and raises a unique issue. Climate change is a problem, but it is not just New Zealand’s problem, not by a long shot. It is a global problem, and a big one.
Other nations, much bigger nations, have jumped in their metaphorical gas-guzzling vehicles to improve the wealth of their own people and societies at the historical expense of other peoples and the environment. New Zealand has the done the same.
And this hasn’t stopped, albeit it has slowed down in some ways. Yet, there are still serious global issues with tackling climate change. What would a land transport plan from a nation of five million do to combat climate change?
These are rhetorical questions with arguably easy rebuttals as to why New Zealand should have such a transport plan with a significant focus on climate change. We need look no further to see the climate activism (and rightfully so) by many who argue there should be better climate policies.
But I beg a more serious question, a question about the clear public outrage about climate change, but minimal commentary on other equally serious issues for New Zealand. How can we protest in the streets to poor climate policy when we are only a nation of five million, when a child dies every five weeks from abuse?
Who is protesting that statistic?
More significant priorities
New Zealand, a country which regularly ranks relatively high in the HDI (Human Development Index) is a country which ranks 35th of 41 for child wellbeing outcomes and has the worst family violence statistics amongst other similarly developed countries (as of 2021).
Yet there is muted public outrage compared to the scale seen for climate change.
Why?
This is the question New Zealand must contend with because it is our families, it is our children, our tamariki, growing up and living in these conditions. What does it tell them when government spends millions on public transport and people march in the streets for climate change, when there is comparative public silence?
Now, don’t get me wrong. There is incredible, amazing work done by many in and outside government to improve family and child wellbeing outcomes. They do a phenomenal job.
But what does it say about our society when no one is marching in the streets for the pain suffered by children at the hands of people they should be safe with?
I don’t claim to know the answers. My simple question is: where are the protests?
And for us Christians, if the church is called to change by the power of the Spirit and to be messengers of hope, why are the voices of churches not some of the loudest? We cannot delegate this responsibility to the religious non-government sector. Where is our outrage and advocacy for change in our very communities?