Demand that Taranaki is designated a ‘rohe of peace’

The Taranaki Alliance, the industrial hub of Venture Taranaki, is using the National–NZ First–Act Coalition Government's $12 billion Defence Capability Plan to create opportunities for local businesses to profit from the war economy. Venture Taranaki has said: "As South Australia has successfully packaged itself as a 'Defence state' it is feasible to see Taranaki positioned in a similar way." [1]

As people who live in and care about Taranaki, we are deeply concerned. We do not want to see our local councils and businesses drawn into the fossil-fuel-dependent military-industrial complex that is harming people and the planet.

The New Zealand 2025 Defence Capability Plan signals a shift in Defence's core focus towards military combat capability with ‘enhanced lethality’ readiness against geopolitical threats and supporting international alliances, while downgrading the threat of climate change. [3]

Aotearoa New Zealand is now deeply integrated into the US military supply chain through defence agreements, military exercises, space surveillance, and billion-dollar military purchases. Rocket Lab, a New Zealand-founded company, launches satellites from Māhia Peninsula for the US geospatial intelligence firm BlackSky, which may be supplying intelligence to Israel's military in its targeting of Gaza. [4] [5]

Following the announcement that the Methanex Motunui plant was closing, Resources Minister Shane Jones has said that the Defence Force needed to boost its resources and that “Taranaki is at the front of the queue” [6]. Jones also told RNZ the Government was actively working to pivot the Taranaki region’s specialised workforce into defence manufacturing.[7]

Our communities need job creation, but not jobs that profit from war. Instead, we should be building just transitions that could include engineering for sustainable transport, sustainable agriculture tools, locally made onshore wind turbines, photovoltaic energy and solar technologies.Defence expenditure provides far fewer jobs and less security than investment in green energy, healthcare and education.[8]

The Government has put $3 million into the Taranaki Alliance, with a further $500,000 in seed funding from  New Plymouth District Council. We are concerned that our taxes and rates are being used to build a local war economy, capturing spending that should be directed towards renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, civil defence, climate resilience, and the well-being of our communities.

Taranaki holds a strong historical legacy of peaceful resistance and reconciliation at Parihaka. It also carries a violent military colonial legacy of invasion and land confiscation that has had a devastating and long-lasting impact on Māori communities. We should be building on the first legacy, not the second.

Join us as we demand that Taranaki is designated a ‘rohe of peace’

Together we can oppose the designation of Taranaki as a defence region, and we call on our Government, local councils, and the Taranaki Alliance to transition away from the war economy and towards peace.

Sign the petition to keep Taranaki a place of peace, not a place of war.

The petition was endorsed by the three marae of Parihaka: Parahuka, Takitūtū and Toroanui on 19 October 2026.

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