Forest and Bird: on the Fast Track Approvals Bill and how to make a submission

Tonight Forest and Bird are running a workshop on how to make submissions on the Fast Track Approvals Bill.

Speakers:

• Peter Anderson, General Counsel.
• Richard Capie, Group Manager Conservation Advocacy and Communications.
• Geoff Keey, Strategic Advisor (and seasoned campaigner).

Register and we’d love to see you online, on Zoom, where Peter, Richard and Geoff will take you through the Society’s guide to submissions; how to write a submission and talk about concerns you have for your local area; and how to prepare if you choose to speak to the Select Committee about your submission.

https://www.forestandbird.org.nz/events/submission-writing-workshop-fast-track-approvals-bill

That’s tonight 7.30pm – 9pm. Register here

Submissions close Friday 19th April.

Forest and Bird also ran an online workshop recently on the Bill and the implication for wildlife and wild places. Forest and Bird Chief Executive Nicola Tuki speaking near the start of the video,

… this is going to take all of us using our voice for nature, in all the places we are, to make it clear that we’re not against regulation, we actually quite like it, but we want regulation that is isn’t unbridled and puts power in the hands of Ministers in a way that New Zealand has never seen before.

I don’t know if you saw the piece on Radio NZ… one of the most senior professors at the University of Otago talks about the fact that this extends beyond the powers of Muldoon government.

Tuki is referring to Andrew Geddes in this RNZ piece,

University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis says there is a precedent of parliament overriding court decisions in the Muldoon era when courts said the Clyde Dam couldn’t be built under existing legislation. The parliament of the time passed a specific act saying it could be built.

“At the time, it was considered to be quite outrageous,” Geddis says. “It was held up as one of the overreaches of the Muldoon government.”

The proposed legislation goes even further than the Clyde Dam example, he says, by giving ministers themselves power. Ministers, not experts or even parliament, will decide on what laws mean, a situation he describes as full of problems. Geddis also questioned whether ministers can be trusted to make the best call if the project involved a political donor.

“In the days of Covid, we allowed that sort of executive power to exist …. That’s because there was a virus threatening to kill tens of thousands of people,” Geddis says.

“It’s got to be asked what the national catastrophe is that justifies empowering ministers to this extent in today’s environment.”

Can permission be wound back?

Green MP James Shaw has noted that projects consented under this new regime risk losing consents under a different government, “possibly without compensation”.

Geddis says this has happened before when the right to fell native trees on the West Coast was revoked and no compensation was offered.

“If the current government brings in constitutionally questionable ministerial powers, and uses those constitutionally questionable ministerial powers to give companies authority to do things, it seems hard to see why a future government shouldn’t respond in as constitutionally a questionable way to remove that authority,” he says.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/512259/the-unprecedented-power-the-government-is-handing-three-of-its-ministers-under-its-new-fast-track-approval-bill

Forest and Bird’s press release on the Bill 7/3/24:

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A new sweeping fast-track consenting bill being tabled in parliament today is anti-nature, anti-democracy, and will leave a mess for future governments to clean up, says Forest & Bird. 

“New Zealand has environmental laws based on science for a reason – to protect the unique animals and stunning landscapes we all love, to safeguard our health and make our communities liveable,” says Forest & Bird Chief Executive Nicola Toki. “This law is flinging open a back door to let destructive industries and special interests bypass those laws.  

“New Zealand already has the highest proportion of threatened species in the world, and this will put more on a fast track to extinction.” 

The Fast Track Approvals Bill will override the Conservation Act, Reserves Act, and Wildlife Act, as well as the RMA and law governing the Exclusive Economic Zone. It would also allow Ministers to refer developments – ranging from aquaculture, dams and mining as well as roading and housing – to an expert panel which only has the ability to make recommendations to the Minister.   Ministers have the power to greenlight projects and ignore the panel as they see fit. 

“This is giving ministers unbridled personal power to singlehandedly approve or decline any damaging development they want. It’s anti-nature, anti-climate, and anti-democratic,” says Ms Toki. “It’s powers not seen since the days of Think Big by Muldoon’s government in the 1970s.” 

The Government is proposing to introduce a list of projects into the legislation at the final stages of considering the bill, too late to be considered in the select committee process or receive proper public scrutiny. 

“New Zealanders are being denied an effective say over what projects should be fast tracked. This feels like not only Parliamentary ambush but a means for developers to ambush the entire country.” 

“Ministers are meeting special interests behind closed doors and adding their pet projects to a green light list. At the same time ministers are slamming the door on local communities, scientists, the wider New Zealand public and even their Parliamentary colleagues. It’s disgraceful and MPs need to hear loud and clear that this isn’t fair or democratic. 

“This is typical of the lack of open consultation shown by this Government so far. We’re talking about an unknown number of developments, each with a complex array of environmental impacts, which groups – and courts – around the country have already put a great deal of effort into considering.  

“In a climate and biodiversity crisis, environmental impacts need to be considered front and centre, and New Zealanders have a right to have a say about what goes on in their community.” 

The initial list of fast-tracked developments looks likely to include open-cast coal mining on public conservation land, after a coal company unexpectedly abandoned their long-running court battle for a new mine last week. Pictures and video of the area are available here. 

“Of course a coal company wants its consents fast tracked if they don’t want New Zealand’s environment and conservation laws to apply to them,” says Ms Toki. “But New Zealand’s laws should make it hard to approve mountain top removal of pristine reserve land for an opencast coal mine and companies need to think hard about the risks to their markets and investors if they go down the fast track route. 

“Our laws should make it hard to deliberately drive native species to extinction, but it’s also likely the fast track legislation will allow a coal company to do just that; investors may not be so keen to be associated with causing extinction. 

“This Government has essentially just declared war on nature. That has huge implications for not just our climate and environment, but also our economy. The rest of the world is watching. They are building economies ready for a low-carbon and biodiversity rich world – we are rushing headlong in the wrong direction. We risk losing access to international markets and trading partners.  All New Zealanders need to stand up and fight these changes.” 

Note: Other developments Forest & Bird has previously opposed which seem likely to have asked to now be fast tracked include: 

• Seabed mining by Trans Tasman Resources, which would suck up 50 million tonnes of the seabed each year. In 2020 Forest & Bird won in the Supreme Court against the proposal, which was in an area home to 30 species of marine mammals, including some that are critically endangered such as blue whales (pictures available here) and Māui dolphins. The matter was referred by the Enivronmental Protection Agency, and Forest & Bird is due at a hearing next week.  
• Ruataniwha dam, which Forest & Bird won a Supreme Court case against in 2016. The proposal was to downgrade the specially protected status of conservation land (pictures and video available here), allowing flooding of the habitat of threatened species such as pekapeka long-tailed bats or kārearea New Zealand falcon.  

Expanded mining on the public conservation land of the Denniston Plateau (photos available here). Last month a species of New Zealand’s spectacular carnivorous snails were moved to the Nationally Critical threat classification status because open-cast coal mining is planned for much of the remaining high-quality snail habitat.