Four mines included in draft fast-track bill floated during coalition government negotiations

By Kate Green of RNZ

Forest & Bird is calling on the Government to release a list of projects under fast-track consideration after revelations they were floated as early as coalition government negotiations.

At least four mines were on the list of projects put forward as part of a draft version of the bill in December – two gold, two coal.

During a hearing of the petitions committee on Thursday, Forest & Bird’s general manager for advocacy Richard Capie told politicians an Official Information Act request had returned a copy of a draft bill put forward by NZ First MP Shane Jones during coalition negotiations in late 2023, which bore a striking resemblance to the Fast-track Approvals Bill.

Jones’ office confirmed it contained “examples of projects across a number sectors which Minister Jones, before he was re-elected to Parliament, felt had languished in the consenting process for too long” – although under the OIA, the list was redacted.

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The Fast-track Approvals Bill is yet to be made law and is currently being considered by the Environment Committee.

However, RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop previously said the list of infrastructure projects to be automatically referred to the expert panel would not be released for consideration.

But his office did release an overview of the types of projects that had already applied for fast-track consideration. Of those, 40% were housing and urban development projects, 24% infrastructure, 18% renewable energy, 8% primary industries, and 5% each for quarrying and mining.

The final page of the OIA response appears to show a redacted list of infrastructure projects proposed for fast-track approval.

Capie said refusing to release the list of applicants deprived the public and the committee of the opportunity to scrutinise the projects.

“If a list of fast-track projects was being shared amongst political parties during coalition negotiations, New Zealanders deserve to know what was on that list,” he said.

“This whole process of developing a law to override environmental standards and local concerns has been rushed and secretive and the biggest secret of all is what projects the government is looking at including.”

The projects had not come about as the result of a transparent process, he said, and therefore the idea they could have informed the new bill was problematic.

A spokesperson from Bishop’s office reiterated that projects on the list had gone through an open application process, and would have to go through the expert advisory group to be consented as part of the bill.

A separate OIA obtained by the Labour Party also mentioned Jones’ draft bill – then titled the Nationally and Regionally Significant Projects and Other Matters Bill – and revealed four of the projects included were mines: two by OceanaGold (the Wahi North Project and Macraes Phase Four), one by Bathurst Resources (the Buller Plateau Project) and one by BT Mining (the Rotowaro Mine Continuation Project).

It is not known whether these projects are among the list of applicants for the new bill.

Labour MP Rachel Brooking said the projects “clearly haven’t come from any policy development place”, and the concerning implication was that private projects would be benefiting from a Government bill.