Hon Chris Bishop
Minister for Infrastructure
Minister Responsible for RMA Reform
Hon Shane Jones
Minister for Regional Development

The 149 projects released today for inclusion in the Government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill will help rebuild the economy and fix our housing crisis, improve energy security, and address our infrastructure deficit, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop says.

“The 149 projects selected by the Government have significant regional or national benefits. They will make a big difference in the regions by delivering jobs and growth and develop a pipeline of major projects to help boost the economy,” Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says.

“The projects have been selected through a thorough and robust process which included an open application process run by Ministry for the Environment, analysis by officials, an independent assessment and recommendations process by an independent Advisory Group, and final decisions by Cabinet.

“The 149 projects chosen by Cabinet to be listed in the Bill will be listed in Schedule 2 of the Bill once the Bill is reported back from the Environment Committee in mid-October. Once the Bill is passed, they will be able to apply to the Environmental Protection Authority to have an expert panel assess the project and apply relevant conditions.

“As we’ve publicly said before, the Government is also recommending to the Environment Committee that expert panels have the ability to decline approval for projects.

“The expert panels will include members with technical expertise relevant to a project, expertise in environmental matters (and where relevant, conservation), and the Treaty of Waitangi. They will function much the same way as the COVID-19 Fast Track legislation established by the previous government.

“The Fast Track Approvals Bill is a key part of the government’s plan to rebuild our economy and cut through the red and green tape that has made it more and more difficult to build the projects New Zealand needs.

“For example, the 44 listed housing developments will enable up to 55,000 new homes to be consented in New Zealand’s major growth centres and across our regions, playing a significant part in addressing New Zealand’s housing crisis.

“The seven aquaculture and farming projects will strengthen partnerships with iwi to boost Māori development and are expected to have an output of up to 143,000 tonnes per annum.

“There are 43 infrastructure projects that will help to address our infrastructure deficit and, among other benefits, result in at least 180km of new road, rail and public transport routes. Having these projects fast-tracked will mean we can continue moving at pace to deliver a new generation of Roads of National and Regional Significance (RoNS and RoRS) for New Zealand to support economic growth and get people and freight to where they want to go, quickly and safely. The eight quarrying projects on the list will help to enable these and other future infrastructure projects.

“The 22 renewable electricity projects will help electrify the New Zealand economy, boost energy security and help New Zealand address its climate change goals. New Zealand has abundant renewable energy resources but the planning system puts barrier after barrier in the way of taking advantage of them. Collectively the projects will contribute an additional 3 gigawatts of generation capacity, if all consented. By comparison, Auckland’s historic peak demand is about 2 gigawatts.

“The 11 mining projects will make a major contribution to the Government’s resource objective of doubling the value of our mineral exports to $2 billion by 2035, extracting coal, gold, iron sands and mineral sands. They will deliver measurable benefits to regional and national GDP, highly-skilled and highly-paid jobs in the regions, and other associated benefits like the retention of regional infrastructure.

“Our regions and the New Zealanders living in them have enormous potential, and the Fast-track projects, freed up from stifling consenting processes, are another change that is giving them back the wings they deserve,” Mr Jones says.

“The projects will bring a big boost, and will help stimulate various industries, including the aquaculture, energy, housing, and mining sectors. This progress is going to help get things moving and flowing where it is needed, in the form of job creation, construction, new opportunities, and more business.

“What people can expect is real change, and visible change, that benefits their families and their economies. And the great news is that through Fast-track, this will be sooner rather than later.”

“While the independent Advisory Group recommended to Ministers a total of 342 projects for inclusion in the Bill, Cabinet chose to include only 149 of them to better reflect the capacity from expert panels to assess and consent these projects,” Mr Bishop says.

“Because of the unprecedented level of interest in this process, it became clear that so many projects were suitable for 2A that having a separate list for Schedule 2B became unnecessary, so it will be deleted from the Bill.

“We emphasise that the makeup of the final list isn’t a reflection of the quality of projects not listed, nor is it a sign that any future application to the Fast-track process for these projects would be unsuccessful.

“We thank all applicants who submitted projects to be considered for inclusion in the Bill, and the independent Advisory Group for their work in assessing these applications.”

• List of projects
• Fact sheet

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