Govt stares down fast-track backlash

Sunday, 9 June 2024

Government ministers are taking a defiant line against fast-track protests across the country yesterday, with Resources Minister Shane Jones dismissing them as “green, banshee-like shrillness”.

The Fast-track Approvals Bill aims to speed up resource consents by giving powers to politicians, which Jones infamously said in Parliament would mean saying “goodbye to Freddy” the native frog.

Jones told the Sunday Star-Times the protest may have been an “eclectic colourful day” featuring “Palestinian protest scarves and Māori sovereignty flags”, but did not represent “garden-variety Kiwis”.

Actor and activist Robyn Malcolm, meanwhile, a key figure in Auckland’s march, told the Star-Times Jones was “reckless”.

“When he says that kind of thing, what he’s meaning is we shouldn’t give a shit about the natural world.”

Jones wasn’t having a bar of that.

“I just think it’s more of this green banshee-like shrillness that sadly we hear far too much of. The protest is predominantly a Green Party recruitment device. It’s ideological hyperventilation,” he said.

“[But], I wont cast aspersion on any TV personalities or any small-screen figures … they have their democratic right to make their concerns known.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also weighed on from his trip abroad in the Pacific, saying he “refuses to apologise” for progressing the country away from being “an obstruction economy”.

“Sorry, I'm not making any apologies. We are going to get things built in this country, because it's taking way too long.

“It’s one of the reasons we haven’t received our fair share of foreign direct investment.”

Leading up to the protest, Greenpeace had a person wearing a giant papier-mâché Luxon head riding a wrecking ball on Auckland’s Karangahape Rd, but it didn’t feature at Saturday’s march.

Jones said protesters were simply attempting to hold “Freddy’s the frog’s wake” following his comments, but it was all just a “catastrophisation”.

“There are always risks in environmental decision-making but we can no longer pretend that saving every bat, every multicoloured skink or Freddy and his whānau is a costless exercise.”

For Malcolm, yesterday’s stand “wasn’t all about the environment” - a phrase she assures supporters isn’t one she would use often - it was as much about protecting democracy.

“There’s a reason [consents] take time, it’s because it’s important and the hoops need to be jumped, and all the people who are involved to need to be consulted. The other way leads to fascism, and that’s terrifying to me,” she said.

Jones doesn’t see the fast-track bill as an excessive concentration of power, or an overreach by the Government.

“In NZ we are either going to surrender to unelected Pharisees, unaccountable grandees, to make pivotal resource decisions, or we can depend on democratically-elected politicians.

“If people don’t like the result, they can reflect their preferences at an election.”

Indeed. But, Malcolm doesn’t believe NZ First was elected with a mandate in the first place.

“If they had campaigned on the idea that they were going to take away the institutional processes that are used to make decisions in a democracy and give them to a small number of politicians, I don’t know whether they would have won the election, because that’s really scary,” she said.

“Most New Zealanders, regardless of where they sit on the political spectrum, are so proud of our natural resources and environment and won’t stand for mining it, and I’m so proud of us for that.”

Jones said that industry would offset environmental losses resulting in a net gain in native species. Meanwhile, “green-burgers” opposing mining minerals needed to support renewable energy was “wanting to drink the milk but not wanting to buy the cow”.

“My position is that we have to mine our way to the future.”

Malcolm said she was worried about the kind of future that Jones was proposing.

“Goodbye Freddy Frog? Goodbye Hector’s dolphin, goodbye tuatara, where does it stop? Goodbye kauri tree, and virgin native forest.”

How the march unfolded

Protesters from around the country arrived by the bus-load yesterday, filling Auckland’s Aotea Square before marching down Queen St, voicing their opposition to the contentious new legislation.

Greenpeace, which co-organised the ‘March for Nature’ event, estimates that 20,000 attended, with many more holding their own events across Aotearoa.

There were placards aplenty with phrases like “Lux off” and “stick that fast-track up your bum crack”.

Mike Smith of Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Kahu and his whānau had travelled from the Far North for the event.

“They’re fast-tracking the wrong things like extractive industries, when they should be fast-tracking solutions like managed retreat, conservation infrastructure and returning stolen Māori land,” Smith said.

He said land that is proposed to be opened up for exploitation could instead be used to resettle coastal communities.

“And with mining, it’s overseas experts that get the jobs, because we don’t have the rough necks. There might be catering and prostitution jobs, but that’s not what we had in mind for our community.”

Steven and Annamarie travelled from Tauranga, dressed as a native frog and a cow awaiting live export.

“It’s wrong on so many levels. It’s creating a legal blindspot so big you could put a mine in it. Democracy is dying,” Steven said.

Greenpeace’s Russel Norman addressed a sea of flag-wavers in the square, saying international companies that sought to harvest New Zealand’s taonga could “expect resistance”.

“We stopped them before, and we will do it again. Thousands of acts of resistance by Māori and Pākehā across this nation meant that the oil companies gave up and they’re not coming back.“

The Fast-track Approvals Bill is proposed to give three ministers the final say on major projects that might previously have been consulted on through public hearings. Those ministers are Jones, Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown.

It also limits who can legally challenge any resulting decision from ministers to a small subset of parties immediately affected by it.

Submissions on the bill have closed and a report from the Environment Select Committee is due by September 7.

What’s at stake? Apart from limiting public input, Jones has signalled the new law will open up conservation land. In particular, what is known as “stewardship land” could be up for grabs for mining companies.

DOC estimates that stewardship makes up 30% of conservation land and represents 2.7 million hectares or 9% of New Zealand’s total land area.

Augusta Macassey-Pickard of Coromandel Watchdog said part of the reason that the nationwide protest had gained so much momentum so quickly was because of how many community groups and their local fights would be affected.

“People in their 60s and 70s are deeply shocked and angry because they’ve spent a lot of their lives fighting. Now they’re calling them ‘zombie projects’.”

Macassey-Pickard said that the resource consents process wouldn’t take so long if companies didn’t massage their evidence.

She referred to a stoush where mining firm OceanaGold claimed there were 50 million native Archey’s frogs in the Coromandel despite estimates of there only being 5000.

“If that’s how many there were, you would expect them to be jumping in my frying pan every time I put it on the stove.”

Another protest participant, Kevin Moran of Save our Springs, spent seven years of his life trying to protect Te Waikoropupū Springs.

According to the Ministry for the Environment, the water in the spring is uniquely pristine because it is filtered through marble for eight years. A judge determined that held “outstanding spiritual characteristics for Māori and Pākehā”.

“The order came into effect in December, and six months later we find out about this bill,” Moran said.

He was shocked to learn that mining firm Siren was now intending to make a fast-track application to create a mine at nearby Sam Creek.

“The thing that I really feel indignant about is people’s lives. I’m one of hundreds, including the experts who gave up their time.

“Everyone made sacrifices. People donated to the legal costs, with one giving $20,000.”

Government messaging

Trish Sherson, a political commentator and director of Sherson Willis, a PR and lobbying firm, said the fast-track bill had brought a long-running debate to a head.

“I think that New Zealand is at an inflection point and what we’ve had is a constant conversation about underinvestment in infrastructure and red tape.”

She said the Government had run its election campaign on a message of “getting shit done” and she believed it had a mandate to push for progress.

“If there’s one area where the Government has lost the narrative around this, it’s the fact that this bill is actually an interim solution to deal with a backlog issue.

“No one ever gets the messaging spot-on on either side, but for the Government to hold trust in this now, I think their focus needs to be on giving Kiwis a peek over the horizon of when these big projects are up and running and how they will benefit.“

Sherson said the Government would need to heed the recommendations of the select committee process.

“It will be up to them to demonstrate it has listened to the hot-button issues around this, and I expect there will be some tweaks… [although] that won’t assuage all the critics on it.”

Professor Marc Wilson researches social psychology at Victoria University and regularly polls the public through his State of the Nation surveys in partnership with the Star-Times. He explained that the environment can be a flashpoint issue, even for those on the right.

“An ACT party voter is less likely to believe that climate change is real, or that it’s serous, and will fall on the cutting red tape side of things. However, if you’re a ‘green’ National voter who also sees the environment as equally important, you’re forced into a trade-off that’s psychologically discomforting.”

Wilson said that fewer than a third of Kiwis perceived they had a high influence on government decision-making - a third said they didn’t feel any influence. This has led to an erosion of trust in government and politics.

“Covid-related mandates has made this a very topical discussion and that has yet to go away thanks to the courting of anti-vax sentiment - NZ First and ACT, I’m looking at you.”

Shane Jones spoke to the Star-Times ahead of the protest but called a reporter again yesterday evening to ensure he had given sufficient comment. He was on his way to Rarotonga.

“Man, I need a break, I’ve played a dartboard for too long,” he said, once again dismissing those who marched.

“I flew down to Auckland from the Bay of Islands, but I haven’t bothered to follow the protest.”