Port of Tauranga expansion drives urgency behind fast-track law changes

Friday, 14 November 2025

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has defended rapid consultations on changes to the fast-track regime, citing a need to clear a legal block holding up the expansion of the Port of Tauranga as one reason for the urgency.

Labour and the Greens have cried foul after Parliament’s Environment select committee decided to give the public just 11 days, until Monday, to make submissions on more than 100 proposed law changes set out in the Fast-track Approvals Amendment Bill.

Ministers have focused in their commentary on the bill on a single change that would oblige expert panels who rule on consent applications to take account of the Government’s desire to promote competition in the industry when considering any they received for supermarket consents.

But the changes also include allowing them to issue similar instructions for any other industry, shortening the time-frames expert panels have to reach decisions on applications, and removing appeal rights from the likes of environmental bodies.

The Government would also gain the power to give general directions to the independent Environmental Protection Authority on its performance and functions, and applicants would get new rights to challenge the suitability of panel members, potentially eating into the time they had in which to make decisions.

The Government has made clear it wants the bill passed before Christmas.

But Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Environment Committee chairperson Catherine Wedd had exceeded her authority by allowing less than the normal four month-minimum for the committee to hear submissions and report on the legislation without first seeking approval from the House.

Speaker Gerry Brownlee appeared to reject that, but said the process used to abbreviate consultations was “best described as a gap or a loophole” in Parliament’s rules that would be reviewed.

Defending the process, Bishop reiterated that the Government was keen to get the supermarket change approved before Christmas but said there was also another reason for the urgency.

The bill would also fix a “minor snafu” in documentation setting out the work the Port of Tauranga could undertake to expand its port, he said.

The Stella Passage Development project would convert land on both sides of Tauranga Harbour that is currently used for cargo storage into berths for ships, but has been opposed by local iwi.

The High Court at Tauranga called a stop to consideration of its consent application under the fast-track regime in August, saying a proposed extension of the port’s Mount Maunganui wharf had not been set out in a government schedule that allowed it to be considered for fast-tracking.

The expansion of the wharf raised “discrete environmental issues and gives rise to complex cultural concerns”, Justice David Boldt said in his judgment.

The Fast-track Approvals Amendment Bill would change the description of the port expansion work so it was always deemed to have included the extension of the Mount Maunganui wharf.

“There is some urgency over the Stella Passage piece of clarity that is required to be provided,” Bishop said. “We want to make sure we get that in place.”

Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said mistakes happened “when you try to go too fast”.

If the port issue was the reason for the short time-frame given for consideration of the fast-track changes, that could have been discussed with the Opposition and potentially considered separately, she said.

Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter said the changes the Government was seeking to the Fast-track Act were not small.

“The minister is getting more powers and it’s going to be harder for non-government organisations, iwi, hapū and community organisations to have their say.”

There appeared to be no exceptional circumstances that would justify truncating consideration of the Fast-track Approvals Amendment Bill, and doing so created a worrying precedent, she said.

“We had 29,000 people submit on the Fast-track Act last year. They are taking away some of those hard-fought-for amendments that help protect the environment and protections that Kiwis fought for through their submissions.

“It is an attack on democracy when we are only giving people a week to provide feedback on something that impacts their lives and future generations.”

Bishop said the amendment bill was relatively simple and that the majority of the amendments being proposed were concerned with the machinery of the fast-track process.

“Some of them were actually suggested by the panel conveners themselves and the Environmental Protection Authority,” he said.

“We put the technical changes to fast-track at the same time as we made the supermarket changes because we want them done at the same time.

“People will always want to re-litigate these things, and people will always want longer, but we want these changes in place.”