Why fast track is the centrepiece of the coalition’s first term

Monday, 7 October 2024

A long list of 149 fast track projects have been announced.

ANALYSIS: Sunday began with the news that the HMS Manawanui, a $100 million Navy dive and survey ship that has only been in service since 2019, ran aground off Samoa, before being evacuated, bursting into flames and sinking. There are many questions to be answered about this.

It ended with the Government announcing 149 projects that would be added to its fast-track legislation, aimed at leap-frogging the Resource Management Act, while the Government gets on with replacing New Zealand’s planning architecture with a new regime. There will also be many questions asked about this.

While complicated, it is also simple. All of the projects on the list will now be attached to the Fast Track Approvals Bill which is currently before Parliament’s environment select committee. After the bill becomes law - expected before the end of the year - these projects can apply to the Environmental Protection Agency for approval. The EPA will have an expert panel tasked with attaching environmental conditions to a given project.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop announces 149 projects the Government wants to give fast tracked resource consent approval to.

The panel will have the power to reject projects if it can’t see a way to make them work environmentally. Once conditions are given, a project can be consented.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said that they expected to have some projects approved in early 2025.

Because of the fast nature of fast-tracking - and the amounts of money involved - the first question to Bishop was about managing conflicts of interest. Bishop said that advice had been sought from the Cabinet Office which the Prime Minister had insisted be followed, including recusals where appropriate.

Given that one of the big concerns about this new legislation was the potential for graft and corruption, this is important. More information on exactly how this was handled will be important for public confidence.

The overall goal of this scheme - Bishop was at pains to emphasise during a strong performance in the Beehive Theatrette - is to grow the economy out of recession, and boost prosperity so that New Zealanders and the state can better afford public and private goods and services.

It is a crucial moment in the unifying logic of this coalition government of three different parties.

Says Resources minister Shane Jones - previously confronted by environmental activists - says, “For the tiny minority concerned about the seabed, I’m more concerned about the sick bed of economic anaemia that is afflicting our regions.”

“We are in a recession. We have been for the better part of two years. We have been a low growth economy. This government wants New Zealand to be a high growth economy,” Bishop said.

This is a government for whom jobs, opportunity, development and private sector economic progress are forefront. Those things are also what it thinks will get it re-elected. This term, the end of inflation and dropping interest rates will propel it into the 2026 election, and by 2029 the number of projects online will see New Zealand as a bit of a boom town.

Bishop belaboured the growth point, giving a primer on why it matters.

“We want New Zealand to be an ambitious country with high quality public services and with good paying jobs, so that New Zealanders can conceive of their own conception of the good life, look after their families and enjoy the kind of material comforts that other countries enjoy. That's what growth means.”

But what was on the list? Well, an awful lot. Loads of housing projects, renewable energy, mining and quarrying, aquaculture, a number of iwi-backed projects. New roads, rail and buses. The full list, which we have republished here, covers projects up and down the motu, across many sectors, government and non-government alike.

It is notable that a reasonable of number of projects on the list are from government entities such as NZTA, or local councils.

And some of it is basic stuff.

When asked about a quarrying project Bishop explained that it’s tough to get consents and that a lack of quarries has meant a lack of aggregate and fill and expensive roads (and footpaths and lots of other concrete work).

“It is a basic requirement of a modern country that you have quarries with the material that comes from quarries. So our expectation is that, you know, we need more of them. We want them. That's why they're listed.”

The most controversial project on the list was undoubtedly the long-proposed ironsands mine, offshore in the Taranaki Bight. The very legitimate environmental concerns around that will be balanced against a very significant economic benefit for the region.

Minister for Regional Development Shane Jones made his views clear to The Post: “For the tiny minority concerned about the seabed, I’m more concerned about the sick bed of economic anaemia that is afflicting our regions.”

But overall, there is a bit in fast track for everyone: For developers, the energy renewable energy, iwi, aquaculture, mining - and ultimately consumers - as well as a long list of potential campaigns for environmental groups.

The Government will have a fight on its hands - especially if and when controversial projects start being approved.

And who knows, if the country gets growing again, the Navy might be given some money to buy a new dive and survey ship to replace to HMS Manawanui.