The government has added more insults to the New Zealand public and democracy today with the redcated publication of the fast-track project applications, released only after the bill’s second reading, said Kiwis Against Seabed Mining.
“The government has thrown more fast-track bricks through the glasshouse of democracy today, publishing redacted documents about a bunch of projects proposed by privately owned offshore companies, only AFTER the scrutiny of a second reading in Parliament. It is disgusting,” said Cindy Baxter Chairperson of Kiwis Against Seabed Mining.
“It beggars belief that the government has redacted the wannabe seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources application’s economic benefits to Aotearoa New Zealand, for a bill whose only purpose is the economic benefit to Aotearoa New Zealand.”
“The government appears to claim there would be no benefit of releasing TTR’s purported claims of economic benefit to the public. But that is supposed to be the ONLY purpose of the fast-track legislation in the first place. So essentially they’re saying the purpose of the bill is commercially sensitive.”
She noted that TTR had also cut and pasted the economic sections (section 4) of its 2016 application to the EPA into the fast-track application form, but even this had been redacted. The entire section is publicly available here on the EPA website (page 73).
KASM called on the government to unredact the entire document, but had a warning for the opposition too:
“We need to hear from Labour, what they will do with any project that get consented under fast-track legislation. Labour especially needs to signal to investors and the like that any project consented might be subject to further scrutiny.
