Three significant protests in the last year aimed at the extractives industry should remind us all of the importance of being prepared for the possibility of a protest event and knowing how to respond, writes Kit Wilson, the Manager of Communications (NZ) at OceanaGold.
The right to public protest is guaranteed under our NZ Bill of Rights Act 1990, which gives all of us the right to freedom of expression and “peaceful assembly”, limited by the need to protect other people’s rights and maintain national security, public order and health, and morality. Such limits are not always clear.
If I can break a law because I believe my cause is ‘just’, how far can I go? Can I trespass? Can I hinder a legitimate business? Can I stop people going about their everyday activities? The answer, based on recent experiences, would seem to be, yes.
Our protests tend not to be physically violent, but you may get jostled. They can certainly be publicly inconvenient, financially distressing or corporately embarrassing. Most do not break the law. Some do, and in doing so gain attention.
In January this year over 100 protesters blocked the mine gate at OceanaGold Waihi causing minor inconvenience for attendees at the launch of the Government’s Critical Minerals Strategy.
Causing significant distress for those directly affected was the Greenpeace occupation of the Straterra (now NZ Minerals Council) office in September 2024, and the ‘sit-in’ protest at Bathurst Resources Ngakawau aerial ropeway this year by Climate Liberation Aotearoa. Both events were physically disruptive and emotionally distressing for staff. There is never anything nice about being the focus of any protest, but these two events raised the bar in what is considered ‘acceptable’.
If we can’t stop protests it is important that we at least anticipate them and know what to do and how to react. What you do and say will often determine the public perception of both the protest and your operation.
Make a plan before you need it
It’s good risk management to have a plan in place, even if you think a protest could never happen at your workplace.
You need to know the basics relating to your rights and responsibilities as an employer, the law relating to private property and trespass, and your HS&E obligations.
This is not always as cut and dried as it may seem. You should also consider your key tactical responses based on likely events and the environment in which a protest may occur. From experience, a protest outside a corporate office is just street theatre, but the same people invading a drill rig in the bush is very different. You may wish to consider a Standard Operating Procedure, response training for frontline staff, and policies on social media responses by your staff.
There’s a hierarchy of risk and response that is easy to remember and will guide your actions:
Health and Safety: for you, your staff and protesters (even if you are not legally responsible for them). That includes mental as well as physical health for your staff.
Reputation: You, your staff, your business will all be in the spotlight.
Production: This may seem counter-intuitive, but this one is a long way down the list. You can usually make up for lost production. Loss of reputation or physical injury are much more difficult to recover from.
The rules of protest
Protests have rules. So does protest response. If you are aware of these rules, you will be more prepared to deal with an event at your place of work. What do you do when you get a call or turn up at work to find a group at the gate blocking your entry; even worse, stopping you leaving at the end of shift?
Rule number one: Involve the police as soon as possible. The police have the power and authority to end a protest. All protests end, eventually. But how long they last, how they end, and any lasting outcome is also in part up to you – what you did (or didn’t) do, what you said (or didn’t say), and how it all looks in the various media. Over the years we have de-escalated several protests without direct police (or media) involvement and with minimal disruption by the way our staff have responded.
Rule number two: Don’t engage, don’t initiate, don’t respond, and definitely don’t retaliate. Do not attempt to run a blockade or argue with protestors. The event will be live-streamed. You really do not want to be involved. Consider having a way to communicate with staff before they arrive at work or to advise them if an incident occurs while they are at work. Some organisations have a WhatsApp group chat or similar set up.
Rule number three: Remind yourself that protest is highly personal for the participants, but they are not protesting about you, rather what you are seen to represent.
Try not to take it personally. That is easy to say, but it is true. It’s not you, it’s the hi-viz you are wearing, the logo on your shirt, or the place you are working. You may feel physically uneasy, possibly even unsafe. That is, unfortunately, normal in these circumstances.
Protesters will use whatever means at their disposal to draw media attention to the event. This may include attacks on your organisation’s credibility, name calling and more. It is still not about you. Don’t take it personally.
Rule number four: Don’t try to reason with protesters. Protests are not about logic and reason and carefully considered points of view. They are about spectacle and raw emotion, banners, loud hailers and chanting.
Don’t take logic and reason to a protest. The fact that you are the subject of protest puts you at an automatic disadvantage. You are reacting to their agenda. Protesters aim to generate a response on their terms. Do not provide one.
Rule number five: Protesters like media attention. That was very obvious in the events at Waihi, Wellington and Ngakawau.
Media need short stories with easily identified heroes and villains. A protest provides this ready-made. Action, colour, movement, sound, human emotion – protests are designed for maximum media exposure.
Don’t let the media or protesters define the issue or the agenda. They already have a head start because they initiated the protest. If you decide to respond to any media, make sure you restate your key messages. Media coverage depends on images. No pictures, no story. The reverse is also true, lots of pictures, good story, even if it isn’t really much of a story at all.
Finally, protests do not exist in a vacuum. They have economic, social and environmental context and have often been very clearly signposted. Protest movements are periodically a part of social change at local, national, and global levels and in situational, institutional, and cross-cultural contexts.
But none of that matters if 10 people have just chained themselves to your gate. What matters is that you take a breath, remember the hierarchy of risk and response, and then apply the rules.
• Kit Wilson has been responding to protest action since the turn of the century. Prior to that he was a member of an anti-mining action group and will admit to being involved in a number of protests “on the other side of the placard”.