Labour leaves door open to nixing fast-tracked projects
The Labour Party is not ruling out throwing a spanner into the Government’s plans to entice more miners and oil and gas companies back into the country.
A fast-track consenting regime proposed by the Government would give ministers the ultimate power to approve new mines, roads, fish farms and other major projects without the usual checks and balances contained in several environmental laws.
Introducing legislation paving the way for the consenting regime last week, Resources Minister Shane Jones said he was “determined to cut through the thicket of red and green tape”.
Labour’s environment spokesperson, Rachel Brooking, said the possibility of revoking consents was a matter that had yet to be put to the party’s caucus and there would be “considerable cons”, indicating that she would support a nuance approach.
But consents could be looked at on a “case-by-case basis”, Brooking said.
“If the worst of this comes to pass and we do end up in a sort of ‘Banana Republic’ state, where ministers are making political decisions, because people have lobbied them to do a certain project, and they override all the environmental protections, that is the point to really consider the ‘pros and cons’ of not upholding consents.
“If something was going to undermine, say, all of our Paris commitments in terms of carbon emissions ... then that might be something for reconsideration.”
Brooking said that would “always have to be weighed up against the harm that might do to the country if we were undoing the work of previous governments but that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be considered”.
She said that she would have particular qualms about consents being granted for projects that had previously gone through the Environment Court or a similar process and been turned down, unless rules had changed to allow them.
The best option would be for the Government to revise the legislation, which is now in front of a select committee and open to public submissions until April 19, she said.
“Governments do back down on things if there’s enough public pressure, and I think with this piece of legislation, it’s not what National voters would have expected.”
Labour’s spokesperson on energy, Megan Woods, has declined to say whether a future Labour government would feel bound to honour any financial guarantees that the Government offered to oil and gas explorers.
The Government has committed to overturning the former government’s ban on issuing new offshore oil and gas exploration permits.
But Jones is concerned that a future government might restore the ban and axe any drilling rights granted while it was lifted, putting off any oil and gas firms from exploring. He revealed last month that he had sought advice on whether explorers could be offered “redeemable bonds” that would compensate them from the taxpayers’ purse if that happened.
Woods said Labour would oppose any such move but she couldn’t say whether Labour would honour any guarantees that were granted, given it wasn’t yet clear what the Government might propose.
“We’re opposed to bringing back offshore exploration for oil and gas. This is not an industry that the Government should be backing, let alone subsidising.”
Jones said any threat to revoke already-granted consents for major projects was “Venezuelan” and harm had already been done.
“The genie is out of the bottle. Both Labour and the Greens have mused that consents under the new regime may very well be stripped without compensation; you can’t take that back.
“It’s like in the Bible; the baby doesn’t go back in the womb.”