4 Comments

This is an incredible summary of this atrocious bill, thank you so much for digging through it! We sighed a big sigh of relief down here in Golden Bay when the Sam’s Creek gold mine which would have threatened the world’s clearest springs (Te Waikoropupū) did not end up on this list. But maybe it’s just a matter of time, depending how long Shane Jones gets to be in his role… as a former marine ecologist with a PhD on the environmental impacts of mining, the Taranaki seabed mining frightens the living crap out of me. It will be an utter ecological disaster, and lead to more than one extinction seeing we have so little knowledge of what species & ecosystems exist down there. I hope that the public opposition to ramming this atrocity through may cost this coalition the next election, and that it still can be stopped.

Expand full comment

great summary Allan. Disjointed in deed. Port strategy seems to be a dog's breakfast. I feel you are being generous with the term "think" in think disjointed! Is there any mention in the legislation around compliance and increased scrutiny to hold applications accountable to their approvals?

Expand full comment

Good stuff Allan. Thanks for your hard work digging into and exposing the fast track bill’s lack of any coherent strategic foundation. Pork barrel politics at its worst.

Expand full comment

Well done. A long read. Thanks for categorising the pretend projects assessment study as a political pork barrel AND for pointing out the RMA as it is now has since inception in 1991 balanced social and economic development. A small edit - the word "this" is duplicated somewhere near the middle

Expand full comment