Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Fast track isn't fast enough

So fast track has a problem - it's not fast enough.

Eight months in, only two projects have been approved. The mining in Taranaki is still undergoing consultation. AKA: delayed.

The word is that every man and his dog is lining up to have their say, including Mount Taranaki - literally. How you ask a mountain its thoughts and feelings is beyond me, but are we even surprised anymore?

Shane Jones is miffed because the EPA, which is looking into all this, has apparently hired a former Forest and Bird lawyer - and all this while we've got $850m in minerals just sitting there.

Now, all of this could have been avoided if the Government didn’t cave to the media and the legal scholars and the green mafia, and just give politicians all the power to override whatever they want. So the delays and the consultation are by design.

And in Auckland, you’ve got Eden Park.

Eden Park, they tell us, is choking under regulation. So why not use your new RMA superpowers to unshackle it?

You can’t. You have to consult first. Why? Because, again, the Government specifically designed the law changes this way.

The windmills they want to put in Taranaki - one local hapū is taking their opposition to the UN.

You can see the problem here, can’t you?

This country is its own worst enemy. We bitch and moan about the GDP number. We freak out about the manufacturing jobs disappearing. Rightly so - but as soon as it’s time to do something about it, to create something new like an industry or a mine, we oppose it. We slow it down. We delay.

Either we accept that you can’t have everything for nothing, and that creating new jobs and growth will cost us something but it’s worth it. Or we accept that, actually, we're to be poor and happy to stay that way.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So fast track's got a problem. And you may have
noticed this, it's not fast enough. Eight months in only
wait for it, two projects have been approved, not even started,
just approved. The mining in Tartanaki is still with the
C word consultation aka delayed, and word is that every
man and his dog is lining up to have their say,
including Mount Tartanaki. Literally quite how you ask a mountain

(00:24):
it's thoughts and feelings is beyond me. But are we
even surprised about this at this point? Shane Zones' is
mythed he says. The EPA, which is looking into all
of this stuff, has apparently hired a former forest and
bird lawyer to do that. Good luck everybody, all this
while we got eight hundred million bucks worth of minerals
just sitting there under the ocean. Now, all of this

(00:44):
could have been avoided if the government didn't cave to
the media and the legal scholars and the green mafia
and just give the politicians all the power in the
world to override whatever they want. So the delays and
the consultation are actually by design. And in Auckland you've
got Eden Park. Eden Park they tell us, is choking

(01:07):
under regulation. So why not use your new RMA superpowers
to unshackle it. I ask, well, you can't. Why you
have to consult first? Why because again the government specifically
designed the r law changed this way so that they
would have to the windmills they want to put it
in South Tartanaki. One local HAPU is taking their opposition

(01:29):
to this to the United Nations. You can see the
problem here, can't you. This country is its own worst enemy.
We bitch and moan about the GDP number last week,
we freak out about the manufacturing jobs disappearing, and rightly so.
But as soon as it's time to do something about it,
to create something new and industry or a mine, we

(01:52):
oppose it. We slow it down, we delay. So either
we accept that you can't have everything for nothing, and
that creating new jobs and growth will cost us something,
but it's worth it, or we accept that actually we're
poor and happy to stay that way. For more from
Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news Talks. It'd

(02:15):
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