New Zealand's Antarctic policy, 1988-1991

Abstract

In July 1988 the Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities was opened for signature in Wellington, New Zealand. The New Zealand government had been instrumental in the formulation of this agreement over a period of six years of formal negotiations. The final text was welcomed, by the New Zealand government and many other states within the Antarctic Treaty System, as an agreement that provided protection for Antarctica from the threats of unregulated mining. Support for this agreement was not forthcoming however from the environmental community both internationally and within New Zealand itself. These organisations sought the adoption of a permanent ban on all mineral resource activities in Antarctica and were not willing to support any agreement that did not realise this goal. The political conflict between these two groups, the New Zealand government and the domestic environmental lobby, is the focus of this study. This case study reconstructs the development of New Zealand’s Antarctic policy from an original position of support for the Minerals Convention through to an eventual rejection of that agreement and the development of support for a permanent ban on all mineral resource activities. Consequently the major part of this work focuses on the manner in which the environmental organisations within New Zealand worked to effect this quite fundamental change in the government's policy. This includes an examination of the various stages through which the government’s policy passed in its development during this period, with special regard to the activities of the environmental organisations and the impact of these activities on the government’s policy. Also considered are the key international events and decisions that necessarily impacted upon the development of New Zealand’s Antarctic policy. This includes an examination and analysis of the Australian and French decisions to reject the Minerals Convention. Also considered are the meetings of the Antarctic Treaty system wherein New Zealand had to promote its domestic policy preferences for support internationally. This work concludes by examining the process within the Antarctic Treaty system of negotiating the Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty on the Environment where New Zealand sought the adoption of a permanent ban on mining only to be thwarted by its inability to achieve the requisite support for this goal from the international community.