3 June: Hundreds of protestors in at least ten locations across the country have taken to ANZ offices, creating “climate crime scenes and performing theatre” outside ANZ branches. The protests culminated in a Greymouth protest outside ANZ’s sole branch in the West Coast – where ANZ client Bathurst Resources hopes to open a 20 million tonne coal mine on the pristine Denniston Plateau.

Forest and Bird branch chair Suzanne Hills says  “The protestors are here because ANZ is providing banking services to coal giant Bathurst Resources, whose monstrous coal mine proposal threatens not only the Denniston Plateau, but the climate we all rely on. ANZ enabling the biggest coal proposal in NZ history isn’t a mistake. It’s a business model: profit now, climate collapse later.”

“We know that banks care about social licence – and it’s not hard for them to drop the worst of the worst; fossil fuel expansion companies. This isn’t about existing coal mines. It’s about massive, new fossil fuel projects such as Bathurst’s Denniston mine on kiwi habitat.”

“Fossil fuel expansion is the worst of the worst – and there is no moral or economic basis for ANZ to enable climate crime. Without banking services, companies like Bathurst can’t dig, drill, or destroy in my backyard. Other banks, such as BNZ and Kiwibank, have committed to shutting down banking services to coal expansionists by 2030. Yet ANZ is banking with fossil fuel companies other banks have dropped. For the sake of the climate we love, it’s time for ANZ to break free from fossil fuels,” says Sumner.

Protests in towns and cities across the country ranged from theatre demonstrations, to rallies, to mock weddings between ANZ and Bathurst, to to interactive games such as ‘Pin the kiwi under the bulldozer’. West coast locals created a mock “Bathurst Burger Bar,” handing out satirical menus advertising ‘Classic Kiwi Burgers’ and ‘Steamed Native Land Snails,’ while a character named “Mr B. Hurst” theatrically ground red playdough kiwi and mimed attacks on actors in kiwi costumes — a biting commentary on the company’s real-life threat to native wildlife.

The week of action came after protests erupted at Bathurst’s proposed coal mine on the Denniston Plateau, with climbers shutting down Stockton Mine and over 70 protestors camping in the mine footprint. 

 You can find the petition to ANZ here, and 350’s correspondence with ANZ here.

Photos/video available for download here.