Submission: Fast Track Approvals Amendment Bill

Summary

The Fast Track Approvals Amendment Bill’s explanation indicates that its purpose is for specific technical adjustments, along with changes aimed at the grocery sector. These are not the focus of ELI’s submission. ELI’s submission focusses on the much more fundamental and significant changes throughout the Bill.

The Bill if passed will:

1. retain the Act’s fundamental administrative and substantive flaws; and

2. layer further weaknesses upon these, constraining the independence currently afforded by expert panels;

3. railroad substantive approval of projects, especially those preferred by the Minister;

4. expose such approvals to a raft of fundamental legitimacy questions.

The resulting Act will lack the substantive and procedural integrity required for its effective administration, which requires the law to be clear and predictable.

The proposed amendments represent a further backsliding of the Act’s consistency with fundamental constitutional principles and the rule of law, as well as Te Tiriti o Waitangi (and runs against the Legislation Guidelines: 2021 edition).

ELI is fundamentally concerned about the sheer scope of environmental degradation, and loss of public interest natural resources, which may be enabled under the administration of this Act, with the amendments set out in the Bill as proposed. Approvals may last as long as a generation, while effects may endure in perpetuity.

ELI opposes the Bill as drafted, and recommends it be abandoned. In the context of the extremely short period available for public submission, and improper legislative process (including a lack of accompanying information), ELI draws attention to some particular elements of the Bill which it opposes.