Gold and coal mines on draft list for fast-track consents

New Zealand First entered coalition negotiations after the election with a draft version of the fast-track bill and a list of projects, including at least four mines.
A draft version of what would become the Fast-Track Approvals Bill obtained by Forest & Bird included a list of redacted “national and regionally significant projects”. It would have been one of the first documents to land in Minister for RMA Reform Chris Bishop’s new inbox.
A one-stop-shop fast-track bill was part of New Zealand First’s coalition agreement. Bishop acknowledged the draft document was used as basis material for the final bill, and this material included a list of specific projects.
This is the first time the years-long history of the yet-unreleased project list has been acknowledged. The list predates the announcement of the fast-track, predates ministerial appointments and Bishop’s letters to potentially interested parties.
Although NZ First’s Shane Jones says his party’s preparation work should come as no surprise. 
On November 29 last year, officials from Bishop’s office sent the Ministry for the Environment a draft of a Nationally and Regionally Significant Projects and Other Matters Bill. Designed by New Zealand First, it laid out an example of how the eventual fast-track could function.
Included in this draft, just like the final bill, was a list of projects. The final fast-track lists these in Schedule 2: a collection of projects baked into the legislation which would go straight to the expert panel for consideration should the bill become law. An expert advisory group has given advice to ministers regarding what applications for Schedule 2 ought to be approved.
Bishop has refused to release the list of 384 applications lodged during the public application process for Schedule 2 under the grounds that the information could lead to lobbying. The list of “national and regionally significant projects” in the draft has also been kept private via redaction, but the way the list is referred to in the rest of the document aligns with how the final fast-track bill references Schedule 2. 
But an event briefing for Jones from January, obtained by Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking, contained further information.
Ahead of a meeting with mining industry representatives including Straterra, the briefing named four projects listed in the draft bill: OceanaGold’s Waihi North Project and Macraes Phase Four, Bathurst Resources’ Buller Plateau Project and BT Mining’s Rotowaro Mine Continuation Project.
Alongside representatives from these mining companies at the meeting and a subsequent dinner were representatives from Siren Gold, Chatham Rock Phosphate and Trans-Tasman Resources. Trans-Tasman has publicly expressed interest in having its seabed mining project off the coast of Taranaki fast-tracked under the new scheme.
The full list in NZ First’s draft bill would have been visible to Bishop and other coalition partners before ministers were assigned their roles.
Until the lists are made public, it is unclear if the projects listed in the draft are reflected in the final legislation.
The list won’t be released until after the Environment Select Committee has finished considering the bill and reported it back to Parliament, Bishop has said.
Forest & Bird’s Richard Capie asked the Petitions Committee on Thursday to prevent the Environment Committee from reporting back until the list of projects had been released.
The original language in NZ First’s coalition agreement refers to the fast-track as a ‘one-stop-shop’ bill, which was overtaken by ‘fast-track’ in 2024 before more recently shifting back to ‘one-stop-shop’.
Jones said a draft of the bill began as soon as his party was given the boot from Parliament in 2020. “While we were private citizens, we spent the guts of three years working on improvements to David Parker’s fast-track legislation,” said Jones. He contributed to that legislation, but “never felt that his bill went far enough”.
The redacted list – about the size of a third of an A4 page – contains specific projects recommended by New Zealand First, which Jones said were “examples of what’s snagged up in conventional RMA law”. He mentioned the Northland dry dock facility as an example. 
Jones said prior work on a fast-track bill, and the identification of specific projects, shouldn’t be a shock to anybody. “People shouldn’t be surprised that we came prepared with specific projects,” he said. 
New Zealand First has championed the fast-track since its inception, which originally included ministerial override: a facet of the bill Bishop and Jones said they wanted to change, during an announcement on Sunday.
This would leave an expert panel with the final say on all fast-track applications, including in Schedule 2. If Cabinet’s recommendations to the environment select committee are taken on board, this panel will now include an environmental expert and an iwi representative – though the latter only when a Treaty settlement is involved. 
But the panel is still limited by the purpose of the bill itself which, at this moment, includes no mention of the environment. According to Capie, “if the panel can’t consider the environmental protection under the purpose of the bill, its hands are tied”.
This story has been updated to reflect new details around the projects listed in New Zealand First’s draft bill.