Independent researcher Dr Terrence Loomis will give a public presentation to Victoria University of Wellington's Institute of Governance and Policy Studies on 20 May 2016. Dr Loomis's research has focused on the National Government's efforts, through its Business Growth Agenda, to expand the oil and gas industry in hope of a ‘game changing’ discovery. In this presentation he will examine some of the orchestrated steps he claims the government took in close collaboration with the petroleum industry to remove perceived impediments to industry expansion, promote the petroleum industry to ‘middle New Zealand,’ and defuse, co-opt or subvert environmental opposition. He will also discuss how resistance and counter-strategies by environmental organisations and local anti-fracking protesters not only disrupted government/industry efforts but altered institutional relations and values between the state, Big Oil and the environmental movement.

Friday 20 May 2016

12:30-1:30 pm

Venue: Old Government Buildings Lecture Theatre 1,

Pipitea Campus, Victoria University of Wellington

RSVP to igps@vuw.ac.nz

Dr Loomis has a background in economic anthropology, specialising in development studies. He has been a Visiting Research Scholar at VUW's Institute of Governance and Policy Studies for the past two years. A book on his research will be published by Lexington Books later this year.