Last month, we announced Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s first ever campaigning vessel. This lightning-fast, 68ft new addition to the Greenpeace fleet will be used to fight for the protection of our precious oceans in our region.

From stopping Woodside’s disastrous offshore gas plans, fighting for a new Marine Protected Area for Lord Howe Rise, and keeping deep sea mining out of the waters of Australia and the Pacific forever, our new vessel is ready to make waves.

Before we start campaigning on the high seas, we needed a new name for our boat that perfectly embodies the reason we acquired a campaigning vessel in the first place: to safeguard our blue planet and defend our oceans.

What better place to start than to ask the community that keeps Greenpeace Australia Pacific alive – people just like you.

We consulted far and wide with Greenpeace Australia Pacific staff, our supporters across the nation, First Nations representatives and Pacific Elders.

And after hundreds of submissions, we are very excited to announce that our boat’s name is…

OCEANIA

Isn’t it perfect?

Oceania is the geographic region home to the diverse peoples and nations of the South Pacific and the continent of Australia – and will be the permanent home of our new campaigning vessel.

Our new boat will be used to take direct action, support front-line communities, bear witness to environmental destruction and undertake scientific research; primarily within the Australia and Pacific region.

We were looking for a meaningful name that captures the spirit of our mission and values of Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

As a local campaigning vessel in our global fleet, Oceania speaks to the urgent need for action in Australia and around the Pacific against threats brought on by the nature and climate crisis.

Together we can rise against big polluters and destructive industries who want to mine, pollute and unsustainably harvest our oceans. Together we can create protected ocean sanctuaries and amplify the voices of communities across Australia and the Pacific who depend on healthy oceans.

We are stronger together, and we are further strengthening our people-powered community with Oceania. Our vessel can bear witness, conduct research and connect us all deeper with our ocean home.

Oceania will be undergoing a refit very soon to ensure she is up to standard for campaigning on the high seas. Oceania was once a family cruising vessel, but it’s now a fierce campaigning vessel! This means we need to:

• Convert the large double beds to bunk beds so we can sleep more campaigners on board
• Reduce the number of bathrooms and convert one to a “wet room” – a space where campaigners can get dry and unpack their gear after taking action at sea
• Give the sails a well overdue replacement
• Expand the kitchen to be a fully functional galley large enough to feed a full crew
• Move the autopilot system outside and on deck where our captain will be steering the vessel

We need your help to make this transformation happen. Donate today to help get Oceania ready for campaigning.

From April 2024, the very first Greenpeace Australia Pacific vessel will set sail in the turquoise waters around Australia and the Pacific. 

With the help of an incredibly generous donor, we’ve purchased a 68ft blue water sailing boat. It’s no leisure cruiser. It’s built for speed, for the open water, to take on those who threaten the future of our blue planet.

It has recently made its way from France all the way to its new home in Australia Pacific waters. It’s currently undergoing a makeover and refit to ensure it’s up to the best possible standard for our ocean campaigns.

A love for our oceans lies at the heart of who we are at Greenpeace Australia Pacific.

Our first ever action in 1977 involved activists using inflatable zodiacs to blockade a whaling station in Albany, Western Australia. This action helped to bring an end to whaling in Australian waters, and spelled the birth of Greenpeace in Australia and later the Pacific.

And now, our fight to protect whales and every creature that calls the ocean home has never been greater.

Which is why we need this vessel to help win campaigns and safeguard our oceans.

As our Head of Field Operations Chris Hay put it: you can’t save the oceans without getting your feet wet.

Now that we have this incredible campaigning asset, we need to raise funds to help power our new vessel to victory. There’s a lot at stake:

• Our direct action at sea can help stop Woodside’s monstrous Burrup Hub from becoming a reality. Exposing their sins at sea can help stop the project.
• Along with Pasifika activists, we’re taking the world’s biggest issue – climate change – to the world’s highest court. With the help of our new vessel, we’ll continue to engage with communities in the Pacific.
• Our oceans are in crisis, with deep sea mining, plastic pollution and industrial fishing pushing our blue planet to the brink. With our new ocean-going vessel, we can campaign for a Global Oceans Treaty, a Global Plastics Treaty, and a moratorium on the destructive practice of deep sea mining.

It won’t be long until our boat is ready for campaigning at sea – and you can be part of this next phase of history at Greenpeace Australia Pacific. 

Donate now to help get our boat on the water and protecting our beautiful oceans.

It comes as Tesla has quit the FCAI because of “demonstrably false” claims that the New Vehicle Efficiency Scheme (NVES) will drive up car prices – with Polestar also reportedly considering suspending its membership to the petrol car lobby today.

Comments attributable to Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Joe Rafalowicz:

“Today Greenpeace Australia Pacific calls on all car companies that support an effective New Vehicle Efficiency Standard to suspend their FCAI membership.

‘It has become clear that the FCAI is only interested in representing car brands who want to weaken emissions limits, and it will distort the facts, misuse member data and even fly out expensive consultants from the US to that end – all against the wishes of its broader membership.

“The FCAI is so far out of step with the demands of Australian consumers, who we know want to see cleaner, more affordable electric cars on our roads, sooner. 

“At this point, the FCAI should really be renamed the ‘Full-Throttle Carbon Addicts Institute.

“Car makers that are serious about climate action stand to gain nothing by associating with this increasingly irrelevant lobby group.”

Last month the FCAI released its NVES modelling, suggesting the cost of limits on car pollution could be as high as $38 billion over the first five years – a claim that Greenpeace immediately labelled as “bullshit”.

—ENDS—

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact Lisa Wills on 0456 206 021 and/or lwills@greenpeace.org

Violette Snow

Green Guardian

“I decided to get involved with Greenpeace after I started meeting people who were working there and they talked about how much they loved it and the brilliant campaigns they were working on – like REenergise which got over 20 of Australia’s biggest companies to switch to 100% renewable electricity by 2025.”

“As a Greenpeace staff member, the brilliant people I work alongside inspired my decision to leave a gift in my will. The passionate volunteers and staff who work tirelessly to stand up to powerful interests in industry and government to protect the environment. These wonderful people are not just passionate, they are fiercely independent, humble and full of heart.”

“I’m still fairly young, so this was my first will and I was surprised how easy it was! I don’t have much to gift yet, but we just bought our first home and it seemed like a good idea to just get something down on paper.”

John Collingridge

Green Guardian

“During the gift that is this life, I have been awed at the majesty and beauty of landscapes, trees, oceans and sea shores; marvelled at the variety and wonder of all the companion creatures who I have had the privilege to observe; and, over time, become aware, that our fellow creatures, especially mammals, share very much of the feelings and the needs that we, as humans, do.”

“So, when my time is up, with part of what I have been lucky enough to “own”, I wanted to contribute toward the conservation of our beautiful planet, now so badly hurting in so many ways as a result of insensitivity and greed of human actions, and to contribute toward the protection and survival of many of our fellow creatures who have now been pushed to the brink of extinction. I dearly hope that my small contribution may avert extinction of all and any, and that these unique companions may remain in our company and on this planet. I am part of this planet: when / see her hurt, I feel her pain: I am often literally moved to tears to see what is happening to her.”

Caroline McDaid

Green Guardian

“I have vivid memories of completing a school project at age 10 on environmental threats and using Greenpeace as a source of information and inspiration. Some of these battles have been won which gives me great courage about the fight to address climate change that we have on our hands right now.”

“While I have children that need to be a focus in my will, I think it’s important to think more broadly about the legacy I’m leaving behind. Greenpeace perfectly aligns with my values and what is important to me and my family. I am happy that Greenpeace is now reflected in my will.”

Denise Aldous

Green Guardian

“My decision to include Greenpeace in my will is a very personal one. My late mother was a pretty strident opponent of so-called “scientific whaling” and my recently passed brother donated regularly to Greenpeace to support their work in protecting the Great Barrier Reef. It is in their names that I took over my brother’s monthly donations and then made provision for Greenpeace in my will.”

“As I watch with ever growing alarm at what we are doing to our wonderful planet and see pristine environments disappear along with the biodiversity of plant and animal life, I have to believe that as individuals we just have to make an effort to support organisations like Greenpeace. We cannot do it alone but collectively we can make a difference. That is my hope.”

Harry Johnson

Green Guardian

“From my early twenties I saw Greenpeace to be a unique environmental organisation as Greenpeace only accepts donations from individuals. Greenpeace accepts no donations from powerful business interests or from governments. Few people, other than Greenpeace supporters, appear to realise how this unique feature differentiates Greenpeace from other worthy environmental groups.”

“If you value your children and grandchildren and the natural world as much as you value yourself, you can easily gift an amount or a percentage of your estate in your will to Greenpeace. Thus your legacy will benefit your young grandchildren, those generations that will follow them and the world’s plant and animal species, since none of these people who are dear to you as well as the world’s other species have a vote in their future. Changing your will in this way is a very easy step to take to ensure a more sustainable future world.”

Comments attributable to Greenpeace Australia Pacific campaigner Joe Rafalowicz:

“The new Vehicle Emissions Standards are like setting a speed limit, with a fine if you go over. The idea is that you don’t speed. The FCAI has said ‘imagine if we all just kept driving at the same speed, imagine how many fines we would get!’.

“But the point of changing the speed limit is that you avoid getting a fine by following “the rules. That means bringing more efficient cars to Australia, and selling more of them – not selling exactly the same thing as they have in stock today, and then copping a fine (which you pass on to the customer).

“Avoiding the fines in the first place is exactly what happened when the EU brought in emissions rules (which have even stronger targets than are proposed in Australia).

“In 2022, 100% of car companies in the EU met their target (emitted less than they were required to.

“In 2021, 100% of the top-selling car companies in the EU met their targets, and 4 out of 88 companies had to pay any kind of penalty (and those companies sold less than 2000 cars in the luxury segment, and so paid a minimal penalty which was not passed on to customers).  

“The idea that car companies in Australia will keep speeding down the highway, ignoring the new speed limit, and will then pass their fines onto the customer is disingenuous and flies in the face of evidence about how these schemes work.

“In short, it is bullshit. And not the good kind that you can turn into compost.”

—ENDS—

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast yet another heatwave for Perth with Friday and Saturday expected to reach a top of 41C.

“Heatwaves and extreme weather are linked to fossil fuel-driven climate change. We will only see more of these kinds of heatwaves and extreme weather if Woodside is allowed to develop massive new fossil fuel projects in WA,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific Head of Climate and Energy Jess Panegyres said today.

“Heatwaves put lives, livelihoods, and communities at risk. Soaring temperatures not only pose individual health dangers but also put entire ecosystems and communities at increased.

“Companies like Woodside are fanning the flames of climate change by pushing ahead with polluting fossil fuel projects.

“Global heating, caused mainly by the extraction and burning of coal, oil and gas, is driving the radical destabilisation of our climate.

“Woodside’s massive Burrup Hub project is far and away the most polluting fossil fuel proposal in Australia – it’s a disaster in the making for our environment and our climate. Extreme heat is just one of the devastating consequences that West Australians will suffer, should this project go ahead.”