Oil the new nuclear for Jacinda

On the campaign trail, Jacinda Ardern declared climate change was this generation’s ‘‘nuclear free’’ moment.

When her Government this week announced new offshore oil and gas exploration permits would no longer be granted, the pundits went further, asking, was this her nuclear-free moment?

But I think the answer is no, not quite.

I can’t be sure whether Jacinda smelt fossil fuels on anyone’s breath, but the clear difference is New Zealand’s opposition to nuclear weapons was driven by public opinion. Even as US relations were dealt a major blow, the majority still supported the Government drawing our nuclear-free line in the sand.

This line in the sand, however, appears to have been drawn before the public has caught up, if the outcry from oil-reliant regions, mayors, companies and motorists is anything to go by.

That feels like it’s all round the wrong way, especially for a country that was governed for so long by a party regularly accused of making policy, or changing it, based on what the polls said.

So, the move away from reflectorship back to leadership is a little jarring, but that doesn’t make it wrong.

There have been many reforms that went against the tide of public opinion at the time but were later lauded as a seminal moment in history that happened not a minute too soon.

The scaremongering cartoons that cast men as harried housewives when New Zealand become the first country in the world to give women the vote are downright comical 125 years on, what with the First Dad about to assume his new duties.

I think about the reform that legalised homosexuality in the 1980s and can’t believe it was ever illegal in my lifetime. But back then, it prompted fears of societal breakdown and a petition against it reportedly contained 800,000 signatures.

The Civil Union Bill in the 2000s drew thousands of protesters out into the street. The image of Brian Tamaki leading his troupe, clad in black and chanting ‘‘enough is enough’’, was as chilling as it was unforgettable. Yet a little over a decade on, civil unions barely even rate a mention because of the passage of the Marriage Equality Act, under Maurice Williamson’s big gay rainbow.

Those who opposed such bills (like now-National leader Simon Bridges) now sing a different tune. In the decades to come, I envisage us looking back on this week’s decision about oil and gas through a similar lens.

It might not feel like it now, but we’ve got a bit of time to figure this out, and time to get the public on the right side of this history-making line in the sand.

I think about the reform that legalised homosexuality in the 1980s and can’t believe it was ever illegal in my lifetime.