Top 10: Ferries, $2.1 billion in fossil fuel related healthcare costs, Curia's Problem & More
Your To-Date Wrap Up includes Sinead Boucher, Climate and Fast-Track Perils
1. Fast-Track projects: Speaker rules no private benefit in list (RNZ, Russell Palmer)
In a fairly rare move, the Speaker of the House Garry Brownlee (National) overturned the ruling of the Clerk, David Wilson, and Assistant Speaker, Barbara Kuriger (National).
The Clerk of the House of Representatives advises the speaker and members of parliament on matters of parliamentary procedure and legal matters.
The Clerk's advice was that the listing of projects under the Fast-Track Bill appeared to benefit specific people - and therefore should be classified as private legislation - and removed from the Bill.
Private Bills - which basically grant a specific exemption to the normal laws - must go through a specific process, including seeking consents from those who may be affected.
The government pushed back against Kuriger's ruling, asking for Brownlee to be recalled into the House so it could be debated. Bishop argued the bill should remain a government bill, and - backed by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones (NZ First) - that it was a government bill for the benefit of the wider public.
Labour's Duncan Webb argued those named in the list were receiving a private interest, saying including it "would be constitutionally an outrage". The party's leader Chris Hipkins said it would be unprecedented for the Speaker to reverse Kuriger's decision, which had been based on the Clerk's independent advice.
Green MP Lan Pham argued the benefit of the projects was narrow in some cases.
Brownlee sided with the government.
Commentary: This stinks.
2. Late amendments to Fast-track bill would make decisions harder to challenge (The Post / Tom Pullar-Strecker)
The Government has unveiled a raft of amendments to the Fast-track Approvals Bill that would further liberalise the controversial planning regime …
To make objections harder, the range of people who could appeal against a fast-track consent would be reduced and some projects would be allowed to start before appeal rights had been exhausted.
Tight time limits would be placed on judicial reviews.
Expert panels that will rule on fast-track decisions could be convened by “senior lawyers” with resource management experience, without the originally-envisaged requirement they had served as a judge.
The changes would also potentially allow developments in some coastal fisheries and estuaries that would have been off-limits under earlier versions of the bill, as well as electricity infrastructure on national reserve land.
The Government would be able to designate individual applications a priority.
In a change that might make it more likely fast-track projects would be approved, the expert panels considering them would need to issue “a draft decision“ before declining any applications and give applicants the opportunity to make amendments.
3. ‘The window has closed on tree-planting’ – Rod Carr (Newsroom / Marc Daalder)
The former climate tsar discusses opposition from ‘vested interests’ in the fossil fuel sector and the opportunity New Zealand is at risk of squandering:
“The energy transition is an opportunity for New Zealand, irrespective of what Beijing and Washington do. New Zealand will be a wealthier, healthier country if we decarbonise energy production and use, transport, electricity generation and heating. Combusting fossil fuels in the open air to do things when we have known cheaper, cleaner technology is silly,” Carr told Newsroom
“It’s in New Zealand’s own self-interest to reduce our dependence and vulnerability to long supply lines of liquid fossil fuels. It’s in our interest not to inhale the stuff at ground level. We should get on and do this irrespective of what the world does. We didn’t invent solar panels, battery electric cars, heat pumps, but they are available to us and they are in our interest to take up at pace, at scale.”
This crossroads, in Carr’s view, is not one where New Zealand is a leader or – to borrow a term – a “fast follower” on climate change. That dynamic is unhelpful, the former climate boss explains.
“I don’t think we need to lead. That sort of implies that there’s some moral high ground or virtue signalling. No. No, we need to get on with it because it’s in our own self-interest to do it, not so we can show off to anybody else. It’s so that we can get the benefit of this low-emissions economy as soon as we can grab it.”
Those benefits are cheaper energy manufactured at home and healthier lives – through a shift towards walking and cycling and towards eliminating $2.1 billion in air pollution-related healthcare costs that arise from breathing fossil fuel exhaust.
Another benefit is increased efficiency. “At the end of the day, emissions are waste. It’s energy that was created that was dissipated to the environment for no return.”
The risks of not taking the right path are significant. On top of the higher costs from dependency on an outdated form of energy, plus all the pollution we expose our communities and children to, there is a reputational impact for New Zealand, which as a small trading nation is reliant on its clean, green image….
Asked about his greatest frustration, he says it was the commission’s inability to hit back against “misinformation and disinformation” spread by critics with “vested interests in obfuscation and delay”.
Full article link in heading title and here
4. Poll: More NZers oppose than support Treaty Principles Bill(1News, Tom Day)
Commentary: 1News has released a poll that shows most Kiwis do not support the Treaty Principles Bill - another significant contrast when compared to David Farrar’s Curia Market Research.
Note: Curia is also a severe outlier on National Party polling results over the last month.
Yesterday, ACT’s David Seymour boasted about Curia’s poll results, saying: “When Kiwis hear what the Treaty Principles Bill does, they overwhelmingly support it.”
Of import, Curia’s poll was commissioned by Hobsons Pledge, the anti-Māori rights crusader who has been found to spread misinformation and breach advertising codes of conduct. Hobsons Pledge is affiliated with Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers Union.
Curia Market Research has a history of problematic behaviour, including misleading poll presentations.
After the independent professional standards group, RANZ, found Curia in breach of industry standards, Farrar chose to resign from RANZ rather than await disciplinary action, which he said included expulsion or suspension.
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