“Chris Hipkins’ self-proclaimed “watershed moment” has turned out to instead be him being outsmarted by a global corporation’s greenwashing PR strategy,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Stuff reports that the fund manager who launched the ‘world first’ 100% renewable climate experiment with Hipkins, was appointed CEO of the world’s biggest oil company only two weeks beforehand.

“Hipkins has fallen for the oldest trick in the book, he has played the role of hapless, starstruck politician to perfection.

“He said the deal came about because New Zealand’s “ambitious climate targets have the world’s attention”. Sadly, it seems like his Government’s policies of burning more coal weren’t what attracted Blackrock, more likely it was his Government’s naivety and willingness to be pawns in a giant greenwashing PR campaign.

“ACT predicted this was the case, I said at the time “Effectively banning people from using fossil fuels is virtue signalling on a global scale using other people’s money.”

“This will be just another embarrassing footnote in a disastrous term of Government. Voters only have to wait 7 weeks until the adults are in charge.”