Robyn Malcolm: Why I’ll march to stop the Fast-track Approvals Bill

Sunday, 26 May 2024

Robyn Malcolm is an actor and Greenpeace activist.

OPINION: Fourteen years and one month ago, with my noisy actor voice, I made a quick track to downtown Auckland - the gathering point for a protest march against National’s plans to mine the very best of New Zealand conservation land.

We hoped the march would be big. Lucy Lawless and I had made a “sexy coal” video which got everyone’s attention. There’d been a huge public outcry over the plans, which were, on pretty much every level, scandalous - because they signalled that the Government valued the profits of mining companies more than it did New Zealand’s natural environment. They showed that when it came to the crunch our natural taonga meant nothing.

And you all showed up for it too, with your voices. It was big. Way bigger than we expected. Queen Street was packed; some 40,000 strong.

In fact, it was one of the biggest protest marches in decades. Teachers, tradies, kids, parents, academics, politicians, grannies - a true cross-section of New Zealand. They marched for our forests and our rivers, our mountains and our bush. They marched for the sort of country we wanted to be part of – one in which nature meant more.

Maybe it was naïve of me to think we wouldn’t need to do it again. It’s 2024 now, surely we’ve moved ahead! What self-respecting, progressive, first-world leader doesn’t prioritise emission reductions and natural capital over a quick buck?

Ours, it seems. Because here we go again, up against the same outdated thinking and with the same high stakes as in 2010. This time the scandalous legislation is the Government’s fast-track consenting bill, which places conservation areas and natural landscapes in jeopardy up and down the country.

That’s why on Saturday, June 8, I’ll be hitting Queen Street again. And I really hope (if you’re in Auckland or can be on the 8th) that you’ll come join me.

For those of you who need a quick catch-up, here is what the fast-track bill will do: it will give three government ministers (who, remember, don’t particularly rate our environment) to consent large-scale projects such as coal, gold and seabed mines, without any of the normal checks and balances.

Usually, big projects involve a resource consent application and careful consideration of environmental impacts, heritage values and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Often the application is contested, and there’s a court hearing. That’s fair, I’d have thought. Democracy in action.

The fast-track bill dispenses with all that and simply removes all the laws the coalition government thinks are getting in the way: the Resource Management Act, the Conservation Act, the Reserves Act, the Wildlife Act, and the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act. What’s more, climate impacts are no longer deemed relevant in decision-making! Are we back living in 1956? Really?

Instead, those three ministers will have the power to override environmental and planning laws and approve pet projects or projects that are lobbied for by industry.

What sort of projects are we talking? Seabed mining in blue whale and Māui dolphin habitat in the South Taranaki Bight; coal mining on West Coast conservation land; gold mining in the Coromandel Forest; sand mining on Pakiri Beach; flooding conservation land to provide irrigation for intensive dairy farming; rare-earth-mineral mining in our last remaining kauri forest in Northland. Believe me, the list goes on.

So yes, it’s major. It’s terrifying. And it’s worth marching against.

Because what sets New Zealand apart from the rest of the world is not our mines, it’s our incomparable and utterly iconic natural beauty. It’s our land and precious native taonga. It’s devastating and frankly embarrassing that in 2024 our leaders are not prioritising this. Instead it’s more mines, dams and roads. Come on!

We won in 2010. The Government backed down and our best conservation land remained protected. Now we must do it again.

See you on June 8, Aotea Square, 1pm - rain or shine.

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