Protesters with a siren interrupted a media conference with ministers Chris Bishop and Simeon Brown in Auckland today.
Bishop — the Minister Responsible for the Resource Management Act — and Brown, the Transport Minister, held the conference at Parnell Rose Gardens just after 1pm today.
They were there to announce the coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years.
It’s a move the Government says will provide port operators with certainty to continue operations — something Bishop said had been stymied by the Resource Management Act, due to “high levels of regulatory complexity and imposed compliance costs”.
But the two politicians’ announcement was itself somewhat stymied by protesters against the Government’s Fast Track Approvals bill, who held a sign behind them which read “Stop the fast track” and another, smaller sign, which said “end luxury emissions”.
A further sign said “fossil fools”. The protesters called out as Bishop and Brown spoke to reporters, as well as employing a siren.
Both ignored the protesters, walking away as one said, “we’re not scary, guys, you can talk to us”.
Another yelled, “have a good rest of your day, Simeon”.
The Fast Track Approvals Bill, a Government bill, was aimed at introducing a “fast-track, one-stop-shop consenting regime”, to “enable faster approval of infrastructure and other projects that have significant regional or national benefits”, according to its legislative statement.
To access the fast-track approvals process, project owners would need to apply to three joint Ministers — Ministers for Infrastructure (Bishop), Transport (Brown), and Regional Development (New Zealand First’s Shane Jones).
A project would then be referred to an expert panel for assessment and recommendation to the ministers, who would ultimately determine whether the project proceeded. It’s been criticised as anti-democratic as it greatly reduces public say on fast-track projects. Some have also criticised the lack of precise definition of what constituted projects of “significant regional or national benefits”.
Once the ministers left, one of the protesters, Sophora Grace, said the group believed the Fast Track Approvals bill would silence community voices.
“All I’ve seen [the Government] do is create a vision where there’s a lot of money in the works, but I’m not seeing any way this gets down to the future generations.
“All I’m seeing is the assets in the environment – the future generations [are] going to be inheriting — which is gonna be rubbish and trash, roads, concrete.
“Salmon fisheries instead of coral reefs, mines instead of forests — and it’s not a future the youth believe in.”
Another unnamed protester said they were there to hold politicians “accountable”.
“We do not want to fast track our futures. We want to put people before profits.
“A fast track bill that conceals all projects which will be passed with the bill is anti-democratic.”
However, Bishop later told 1News: “The Fast Track bill is about building the infrastructure and significant projects New Zealand needs to grow the economy and provide jobs and growth, including renewable energy to decarbonise the economy.
“It’s simply too hard to get things done in New Zealand and we make no apologies for cutting through the red tape holding us back.”