Fast-Track Approval Bill: Why thousands are against the Government’s new plan to cut red tape - The Front Page

Ministers Chris Bishop, Simeon Brown and Shane Jones will have the final say on whether projects in line for consideration under the Government's Fast-Track Approvals Bill will be given the green light or not. Photo / RNZ / Angus Dreaver

One of this Government’s most contentious bills is now before a select committee.

The Fast-Track Approval Bill is designed to speed up the process of consenting major projects, from transport initiatives like roads to housing developments.

Parliamentarians are wading through nearly 27,000 submissions - with the Environment Committee to hear from more than 1100 submitters across six weeks.

The bill would give three ministers - Chris Bishop, Shane Jones and Simeon Brown - the power to make the final decisions on projects, even if it goes against the advice of expert panels.

Victoria University of Wellington political analyst Dr Bryce Edwards told The Front Page it’s still unclear what kind of projects are likely to be consented.

“At this stage, we’ve had about 200 organisations sent letters from the Government encouraging them to apply. They tend to be property developers, some in the mining area, coal, gold, extraction of oil and gas - some want to build all sorts of other developments, especially infrastructure.”

Concerns relating to the potential environmental impacts if the bill were to be passed as is does warrant concern, Edwards said, given the existing Resource Management Act provides protection for the natural and built environment.

“It means that whenever any private developer, or even any Government developer, wants to make any big changes, they need to get consent from experts and judicial court to do those things. This [bill] will bypass that process and allow people to apply to those Government ministers to get permission.”

While this bill is sparking controversy, the existing Act has become complicated and there is consensus across the political spectrum that it has become too unwieldy and needs to be replaced, Edwards said.

“It does have a lot of red tape, so you can totally understand where the Government’s coming from. The fact is that it has become very expensive to get consent and carry out big projects - and sometimes, it takes many years.

“At the moment, the RMA is supposed to produce a balancing act between the environment and development.”

But critics say the favour could tip too far into developers’ hands if all environmental caveats are decided by three ministers alone.

“Under this new scenario, they can then go to these ministers and say, ‘We lost in the Environmental Court, we’ve held appeals, we keep on being pushed back, but you have the ability to sign this piece of paper and let us do it’. And certainly, if you listen to a minister like Shane Jones, he makes it very clear that he’s favourable to giving the sign-off to that sort of development.

“He’s, in Parliament, made some colourful jokes about this, and that he’s not going to allow endangered species to be weaponised to stop progress in getting the economy going,” Edwards said.

That’s in reference to comments Jones made in December in Parliament, saying: “… If there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddie.”

Listen to the full episode to more on this controversial bill and why it’s causing such a furore.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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