Mahuta has come under fire from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for breaking the ‘caretaker government’ constitutional convention in signing the agreement.
The BBNJ is part of the UN’s ‘Agenda 2030’ push, which it hopes will “conserve and manage at least 30 per cent of the world’s terrestrial and inland water area by 2030”.
But Peters said Mahuta had shown a ‘contempt’ for the long-standing convention.
“Parliament has risen and New Zealand is less than two weeks from when early voting begins on October 2nd. The caretaker convention has always been that these matters the Foreign Minister is engaged in, should be left to the next government to deal with,” Peters tweeted.
“Minister Mahuta claims to be doing this on behalf of ‘Aotearoa New Zealand’, which to begin with is not our country’s name. What she omitted to explain was why she is signing this agreement now, this close to an election, when this agreement is open for signature in New York for the next two years.
“There has been no public announcement or discussion of the Minister’s intention to sign the agreement. In short, the Minister is signaling before the next government is even elected, an intention to ratify.
“Labour is putting globalists in charge of the high seas, and from here the NGOs will take over the secretariat and expand the remit of this document, to ensure that all activity on the high seas will require UN approval – such as shipping, fishing, and deep-sea mining.
“Labour has no mandate to push forward with this covert agenda, with just weeks out from the election.”
Peters said it was another example of Labour’s ‘Pandora Box’ attitude, which sees the government doing as much as it can before losing power in the hope that it cannot be undone in the future.
“This level of contempt shown for the people of New Zealand and our long-standing democratic convention, is an astonishing development that cannot, and will not, go unchecked,” said Peters.
The general election takes place on 14 October 2023.