Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (front), RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop (left rear), Regional Development Minister Shane Jones (centre rear) and Transport Minister Simeon Brown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon (front), RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop (left rear), Regional Development Minister Shane Jones (centre rear) and Transport Minister Simeon Brown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The decision came after weeks of scrutiny over just who had been asked to consider applying to have consents fast-tracked, with environmental groups in particular concerned the Government is not adequately factoring in their concerns.
The list includes the iwi, and other entities from the Māori economy, developers, the seafood industry, primary industries, local councils, even the trust that administers Eden Park.
Bishop said he had released the list after his office had received numerous OIA requests for its contents. He said that the fact a company was on the list did not necessarily mean it would have projects fast-tracked, but only that it had been approached to consider putting in an application.
The groups can submit a proposal they think should be fast-tracked to the Government’s Independent Advisory Group. That group will then decide on a list of projects it thinks are suitable to be included in the Fast Track process and refer that list to a group of three infrastructure ministers: Bishop, Shane Jones, and Simeon Brown.
Those three will make the final call on what projects will be included. The list of projects will then be added to the bill. Projects will be included in either Schedule 2A or 2B of the bill.
Projects listed in Schedule 2A will be automatically referred into the fast-track process laid out in the bill. The listing of a project in Schedule 2B will mean it is required to be taken into account by ministers if and when a project comes before them for referral into fast-track.
Submissions on the bill itself close at midnight tonight. Organisations have until next month to submit applications.
Chris Bishop denies he was forced to release the list. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Forest and Bird said Bishop had been forced to release the list after it laid a complaint with the Ombudsman.
“There’s nothing proactive about this. It’s disgraceful that Forest & Bird had to go to the Ombudsman to get this Government to release the list of who it has invited to fast-track the destruction of our environment,” Richard Capie, Forest and Bird’s group manager conservation and advocacy, said.
“That the Government didn’t want to release this information, and that it’s now only coming out the day that submissions close, shows just how anti-democratic this whole thing is.
“How much longer will New Zealanders be kept waiting to find out which of these organisations will have their projects included in the first 100 projects destined to be fast-tracked?” he said.
Bishop said Forest and Bird’s allegation the Ombudsman had ordered the release of the list was “false”. He said the organisation had asked for the release of a list of projects that ministers had thought about putting in the bill. However, ministers decided to scrap this model, and move to asking individual firms to submit proposals to the Expert Advisory Group.
He said the original list was “never substantively considered by ministers as it was around that time that Cabinet agreed an Expert Advisory Group should be stood up to undertake a more thorough and independent analysis of projects that could be included in the bill”.
“I explained to the Ombudsman that to release that list of projects would be confusing and misleading, given it had been set aside in favour of the Expert Advisory Group process.
“The Ombudsman did not order the release of that long-since discarded projects list, but as a sign of good faith I proactively offered to release this list of stakeholders. This was agreed to this morning, and I have released the list of stakeholders on the same day,” he said.
Forest and Bird released a timeline suggesting the Ombudsman had hurried Bishop into releasing the information.
He said that on April 17, it had been notified by the Ombudsman that he had made a provisional determination and had sent it to Bishop for a response, noting the urgency requested by Forest and Bird.
On April 18, the Ombudsman notified Forest and Bird that the minister had decided to proactively release the information.
There are several firms on the list with which Jones has a history.
When asked about the potential to recuse himself from some decisions relating to those firms, Jones said those organisations “have every statutory right to put their best foot forward. To the extent that those projects see the light of day will depend on their robustness and it will also depend on the project and its outcomes are consistent with the purpose of the law”.
“I think it is fanciful and aggravating to suggest that just because I have had a long background with various industries that they should be ruled out or indeed I should be ruled out,” he said.
Jones was encouraged by the number of Māori entities on the list. He said NZ First had campaigned on New Zealand moving “beyond a [Treaty] breach culture” and the idea that “everything that Crown does that may offend some Māori is construed as a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi”.
He said the focus of Māori should “be squarely on recovering our economic fortunes and fixing our current account deficit”.
“The average Treaty activist has no conception of the dire nature of the current account situation but no nation can prosper unless it boosts its export receipts. Statutory constipation is very dire and this bill is a purgative,” Jones said.
Labour’s environment spokeswoman, Rachel Brooking, said it was “disappointing” it had taken the Government this long to release the list, particularly given submissions on the bill closed on Friday.
She said the fast-track process harked back to the time of Robert Muldoon. She called on the Government to allow the Select Committee to examine the projects that are to be included in the bill, and to allow the public to submit on the list too.
Organisations who received letters about submitting fast-track projects:
