Fast-track Approvals Act – a race to the bottom?

The Quick-track Approvals Act 2024 [The Act] got here into drive on 23 December 2024. In its easiest phrases, the Act goals to determine a everlasting fast-track regime that makes it simpler and faster to achieve approvals for infrastructure and improvement initiatives that ship vital nationwide or regional advantages.[i] 

Greater than 25,000 public submissions had been made on the proposed Act [the Bill], with the overwhelming majority of submitters opposing it.[ii]

Key points raised by submitters had been the potential politicisation, secrecy and velocity of the decision-making course of; the numerous discount in standing and weighting of the setting within the evaluation of ‘useful’ initiatives; elimination of the RMA s8 requirement to have in mind the rules of te Tiriti o Waitangi; and the virtually complete exclusion of public participation within the consideration of functions.

My submission targeted on offering real-world, practice-based suggestions,utilising the in depth mission expertise we have now gained over the previous twenty 5 years.[iii]

My design apply specialises in integrating giant initiatives into native environments. We work on the sorts of initiatives which have been earmarked for fast-tracking underneath the Invoice: nationally vital infrastructure initiatives and key city renewal initiatives, typically sited inside complicated and delicate environments.

The ideas which I set out each right here and in my submission are borne from the challenges and alternatives of engaged on these initiatives.

Ambition versus actuality

The governance regime and procedures outlined within the Act signifies that the planning and design of fast-tracked initiatives will largely keep away from the checks and balances that sometimes outcome from public processes and public participation. In essence, that is the intention of the laws. 

The Act due to this fact locations an enormous onus on fast-tracked functions to be sound in conception and sensitively tailor-made of their match. But, primarily based on our analysis of proposals over the previous 25 years, public and company organisations should not have the planning and design experience, nor a priority for the ethos of a mission, to competently ship the ambitions of the Act. 

A lot of the large-scale infrastructure and concrete improvement plans proposed lately, definitely in Auckland and Wellington, have struggled to achieve traction or approval, except or till, vital remedial motion was pressured to be taken by the public.  

In our opinion, any hurdles confronted by these initiatives had been largely created by the poor judgement and low talent degree of the organisations chargeable for their conception and approval.

From our perspective, candidates have too typically adopted outdated strategies in inappropriate locations, with unsatisfactory choices promoted as the necessity for reform.

The persistent calls from enterprise and infrastructure representatives to overtake the RMA and create an unique fast-track consenting course of have distracted consideration away from these vital weaknesses.

Predictably, Infrastructure New Zealand, the nationwide member affiliation, submitted in assist of the Quick-track Approvals Invoice, viewing it because the paradigm shift wanted to right lengthy, gradual and expensive consenting processes [iv], with out acknowledging the trade’s basic function in contributing to these costly delays.

Specifically, specialist technical professions are employed who have no idea learn how to combine giant initiatives into city or delicate environments. Conceptual designs, particularly in relation to land transport infrastructure, are largely formulated by engineers, whose worldview and skillset aren’t geared up to interact with contextual complexity. 

Sometimes, green-field or grade-separated options are proposed as a method to keep away from constraints and improve flexibility, all of which generates excessive prices, sacrifices vital land-use funding alternatives and produces poorly outlined city type.

Secondary consultants, similar to panorama architects and concrete designers (with architects largely absenting themselves) appear to have little energy or insights to shift this strategy. But their appreciation for context ought to make the crucial, and in our view, vital distinction.  

A race to the underside

The Treasury’s evaluation aligns carefully with our expertise. In its briefings to the Authorities, it warned the nation’s historic under-performance on giant initiatives (poor strategic pondering, poor planning, poorly scoped investments, untimely functions, and choice for greater price interventions) can not proceed, and rightly famous that the fast-track laws might intensify these failings [v].

Te Waihanga New Zealand Infrastructure Fee has simply revealed a draft Nationwide Infrastructure Plan (NIP) which offers a textbook evaluation of those issues, benchmarked towards sound governance rules, and with suggestions on learn how to overcome them.[vi]

But nowhere does the NIP talk about – and even point out – the potential implications of the Act, and the robust attraction and certain use of it by each candidates and central authorities alike to avoid tried-and-tested processes and qualitative outcomes.

The overriding function and energy of the Act will certainly imply that industrial acumen and political expediency will proceed to give attention to quick time period pursuits and returns. 

The NIP acknowledges that New Zealand must ‘elevate its sport’, but it seeks the identical technique of reaching this as trade representatives, by “decreasing prices or easing the regulatory setting”.[vii]

The NIP’s name for ‘smarter’ planning, in actual fact, means equipping planning with the instruments to create an “enabling setting” which “clears the way in which for infrastructure”[viii]. A people-mover, in impact.

This strategy is wholly totally different to The Treasury’s demand for smarter execution, which in apply requires extra rigorous and accountable processes reasonably than the ruthless acquisition of semi-autonomous governance.

The NIP suggests lifting the sport “may additionally imply taking a extra industrial strategy to infrastructure whereby we vastly elevate the bar on mission high quality, discovering new initiatives that households and companies will probably be prepared to pay for.”[ix]

An actual concern is just not solely will the Act socialise the prices of enormous initiatives, the NIP will in the end name for communities to pay for any further ‘elevate’ within the poor high quality of outcomes.[x]

In our opinion, with out the general public’s potential to totally take part, to problem proposals or choices, the Act will successfully decrease requirements to the extent of potential of those that are unable, or maybe unwilling, to satisfy present necessities. This may create a vicious circle of ever declining requirements in skilled companies and environmental outcomes.

The general public’s important function in forming our city environments

The ‘one-stop store’ course of enabled by the Act is due to this fact deeply regarding as a result of it’ll shield inferior functions from being topic to the extent of scrutiny and testing which at all times comes with public notification. 

We supplied 9 case research in our submission the place the opening up of vital infrastructure functions to public scrutiny and unbiased skilled evaluation led to vital enhancements, and infrequently, radical transformation of the design.

Of particular relevance, eight of the 9 initiatives had been roads of nationwide significance (RoNS) or their equal again within the day[xi].

Over the previous twenty 5 years, authorities companies have spent – and consultants have been paid – billions of {dollars} creating infrastructure plans for these initiatives, solely to finish up constructing the general public’s higher concepts.

This consists of the SH1 Ōrewa to Pūhoi Northern Gateway Motorway; the SH1 Victoria Park Tunnel Motorway andSH20 Mt Roskill Extension Motorway in Auckland; and the SH1 Buckle Road Underpass in Wellington, to call a few.

In virtually each mission, the methodology and key options accepted or adopted for them had been proposed by the general public, not the organisation chargeable for planning them.

The general public’s formative contribution to those vital initiatives doesn’t match the narrative of these selling the Act. The so-called ‘obstruction financial system’[xii] is, in actuality, one which has monetised systemic failure.

The legacy of Muriel Kett

The SH1 Ōrewa to Pūhoi Northern Gateway Motorway (1992–2009) is a case in level.

Muriel Kett, an area landowner, unsuccessfully appealed useful resource consents granted to Transit NZ to each the Surroundings and Supreme Courts, on the idea that “the depth of reduce proposed for the alignment of the motorway by Johnstone’s Hill was incorrectly calculated and could be unstable.”[xiii]

She commissioned an alternate design from Peter Riley, an skilled in rock mechanics, who changed the transport company’s proposed reduce with twin tunnels by the hill approached by a low causeway throughout Waiwera River.

I perceive that after defending itself by two in depth authorized processes, Transit NZ sought unbiased recommendation from Australian geotechnical specialists who confirmed Kett’s and Riley’s evaluation. Transit NZ subsequently modified its plan and constructed Riley’s tunnels and causeway as a substitute, as we see right now.

Enthusiastic about what’s greatest for the metropolis

The methodology and principal options of the SH1 Victoria Park Tunnel Motorway Mission (2004-11) in central Auckland had been additionally proposed by the public.

Transit NZ’s preliminary idea for growing the capability of site visitors throughout Victoria Park consisted of a replica flyover beside the present construction. A local people group, the St Mary’s Bay Affiliation, developed its personal methodology (once more with Peter Riley) and beneficial a cut-and-cover trench in order that public use of the park may proceed to be maximised.

When Transit NZ declined this strategy resulting from its perceived price, the affiliation commissioned its personal preliminary estimate which confirmed {that a} cut-and-cover trench was no costlier than a flyover. Transit NZ proceeded with the trench.

My apply (RRA) beneficial the Birdcage Resort, an 1886 constructing sited on the unique foreshore of Freemans Bay, must be returned to its place on high of the tunnel entrance as a substitute of being completely relocated off-site.

The return of the lodge would allow the constructing to retain its outstanding place within the neighbourhood and future-proof the finely proportioned house in entrance of the constructing which may turn out to be a civic sq. sooner or later, with elimination of the present flyover as a part of one other harbour crossing.

We labored out that the tunnel portal would have to be moved again by solely 10 metres to realize this. Transit NZ declined our proposal resulting from its perceived price, stating that transferring the lodge solely as soon as would price upwards of $10million. 4 years later, Transit NZ lastly agreed, and the price of transferring the lodge twice was discovered to be lower than $2.5million.

Wellington’s wobbles

Since 2011 shut to 5 hundred million {dollars} has been spent planning a SH1 hall by the central metropolis of Wellington with out NZTA producing a design which is near decision or consent.

This consists of NZTA’s proposed flyover beside the Basin Reserve Cricket Floor which a government-appointed Board of Inquiry declined in 2014; and the Let’s Get Wellington Shifting programme thatfollowed, led by NZTA, which was cancelled by the current authorities in early 2024.

The mission has since been renamed the SH1 Wellington Enhancements Mission, categorized as a RoNS[xiv] and listed in Schedule 2 of the Act as a mission which may apply for fast-tracking. The NZTA Board has confirmed the scope of labor features a new Terrace Tunnel and Mt Victoria Tunnel.

In the latest planning reviews we have now obtained (which date again to 2020-21)[xv], the popular choices for the mission entailedwholescale transformation of the central metropolis motorway hall. NZTA carried these choices by to funding case improvement in January 2025, which will probably be submitted to the NZTA Board for approval in early August.

This programme of labor would price many billions of {dollars} (as a lot as a protracted tunnel underneath town), create a few years of extreme disruption (as town would require the present motorway to stay open for site visitors) and any advantages would solely accrue on the ultimate and complete completion of all parts (as opening every stage would trigger site visitors overload for the remainder of the hall).

The Authorities, nevertheless, doesn’t have the fiscal sources to construct NZTA’s most popular choice/s. Will it determine to fast-track the mission most popular by LGWM/NZTA at any price and regardless of the influence? Or draw on recommendation from The Treasury, Te Waihanga and unbiased specialists similar to our apply, to provide one thing extra wise, inexpensive and achievable?

The return of BRREO

Again in 2013-14, my apply proposed an alternative choice to NZTA’s flyover, the Basin Reserve Roundabout Enhancement Choice (BRREO) in collaboration with site visitors engineer John Foster. We submitted BRREO to the Board of Inquiry on behalf of the Mt Victoria Residents Affiliation.

BRREO ingenuously incorporates additional site visitors lanes and bus speedy transit throughout the current highway house of the roundabout. The deceptively easy re-arrangement and extra capability, mixed with grade-separation of Buckle Road (one other RRA initiative, which shaped Pukeahu Nationwide Warfare Memorial Park above)[xvi] meant that an costly, heavy engineering construction was not required.

BRREO additionally strengthens the definition of the roundabout throughout the metropolis plan, in addition to the most important streets assembly it, together with town gateway from the east. The improve to SH1 is actually disguised inside this greater order of citymaking, making BRREO an invisible match with its environment.

The Board of Inquiry recognised that each the flyover and BRREO delivered vital journey time financial savings whereas additionally highlighting that BRREO did so with minimal price and influence.[xvii]

Remarkably, LGWM and NZTA didn’t see any worth in BRREO, and have by no means engaged with us to higher perceive BRREO or to develop its pondering or design, because the Board beneficial it ought to do.

Given each the unaffordable and implausible imaginative and prescient NZTA selected to advance for funding case improvement this yr, we have now returned to BRREO and prolonged its design to embody the broader scope of the SH1 Wellington Enhancements Mission.

Our comprehension of the problems is identical as for the Basin Reserve Roundabout: particularly, transport enhancements to the present community haven’t been adequately thought of, and an alternate resolution, whose prices and influence are considerably lower than NZTA’s most popular choices, can meet each the federal government’s and metropolis’s targets for the mission.

By this work, we will affirm that the DNA which is exclusive to BRREO – three lanes on SH1 in every route – can reply the broader mission’s targets in a quite simple approach.

We observe that the current planning reviews didn’t see any worth in extending BRREO. We do, and have re-named our proposal the Basin Reserve Roundabout Extension Choice. BRREO maintains the roundabout as the important thing pivot level and main site visitors distributor for town, which has at all times been our goal for engaged on this mission.

Alternative price

On this approach, we return full circle to the premise of our submission. Solely by motion taken from outdoors of the organisations chargeable for planning infrastructure have most issues of substance and enduring worth been achieved.

We requested the Choose Committee reviewing the Quick-track Approvals Invoice to think about what the long run implications and alternative price is likely to be from eradicating the general public and unbiased skilled pondering from vital planning processes, similar to these legislated by the Act.  

The load of proof means that the general public is extra even handed in its evaluation of antagonistic results than many organisations and their consultants, and is ready to create lifelike options with measurable nationwide and regional advantages.

The popularity of that is greatest encapsulated by a useful resource consent choice declining a nationally vital transport infrastructure proposal at Onehunga in 2007:

“The Auckland Metropolis Commissioners witnessed the numerous constructive involvement of submitters from the local people, who along with Māori, have put ahead a well-considered bundle of other choices. The neighborhood response general displays a extra balanced strategy.”[xviii] 

Productive citymakers

It seems that New Zealand is creating a powerful resistance to complexity – like many different western nations, it have to be stated – regardless that we’re one of many least-regulated developed societies within the world.

Historically, funding in greater schooling and coaching, R+D, enlightened coverage and the benchmarking of requirements have been seen as the best methods to work by complexity, and the best method to optimise greater worth returns.

Latest laws suggests we’re extra snug heading within the reverse route.

The ambitions of the Act ought to have required, on the minimal, main upskilling and better accountability of organisations and professionals.

To assist, our submission outlined the form of methodologies we have now discovered works efficiently with the real-world complexities of New Zealand’s planning system.

Our principal perception is that proposals expertise essentially the most issue in gaining consents the place they’re positioned inside delicate city contexts. In a majority of these conditions, constraints on house and conflicts with the present setting and communities are at their best.

Now we have discovered essentially the most worthwhile areas for investigation are, not surprisingly, the contextual points which top-down pondering and technocratic approaches discover essentially the most difficult.

Religion have to be positioned in locals’ lived expertise and astute suggestions. A constructive relational strategy have to be achieved with the environment, and a extra permeable and inclusive infrastructure created. Individuals should have the ability to keep joined to locations. Tasks ought to comprise a price alternate proposition which communities’ sense is smart, worthy and wholesome to assist.

At the present time, it’s totally affordable for the general public to count on built-in and holistic options which embrace the setting and native communities. Plainly, this must be the usual reasonably than the exception. The Act trades this sense of public wellbeing for the safety of a really totally different set of rules.

References

[i] For a abstract of the Act and the method it went by to turn out to be legislation, see Ministry for the Surroundings https://setting.govt.nz/acts-and-regulations/acts/fast-track-approvals/

[ii] https://payments.parliament.nz/v/6/083f0a7b-f182-41d5-0897-08dc3e31559c?Tab=sub

[iii] https://www.parliament.nz/useful resource/en-NZ/54SCENV_EVI_083f0a7b-f182-41d5-0897-08dc3e31559c_ENV35275/c1f41b0ff0d120ce09c991507bab7efba7b4277e

[iv] Infrastructure New Zealand submission, para 2.2 -2.7, p2-3

[v] See Phil Pennington, RNZ, https://www.rnz.co.nz/information/enterprise/528940/business-cases-for-large-roading-projects-disconnected-from-reality-ministry (25 September 2024) and https://www.rnz.co.nz/information/political/535175/treasury-warns-government-about-overspend-poor-planning-on-major-infrastructure-projects (29 November 2024)

[vi] Te Waihanga New Zealand Infrastructure Fee, Draft Nationwide Infrastructure Plan, revealed 25 June 2025. See https://tewaihanga.govt.nz/draft-national-infrastructure-plan

[vii] Draft NIP, p5

[viii] Draft NIP, p12

[ix] Draft NIP, p5

[x] Now we have seen feedback from Te Waihanga that explores this state of affairs.

[xi] Each The Treasury and Te Waihanga acknowledge the governance and oversight of land transport infrastructure “wants explicit consideration”, Draft NIP, p55.

[xii] “Quick Observe Approvals Invoice – New Zealand has turn out to be an obstruction financial system, says Chris Bishop”, NZ Herald, 26 April 2024. See https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fast-track-approvals-bill-new-zealand-has-become-an-obstruction-economy-says-chris-bishop/MMDGW5QK4VEETHJK2LISLJY2VE/

[xiii] Forest and Fowl Journal 350, Nov 2013, p8

[xiv] The SH1 Wellington Enhancements Mission is the one mission within the Authorities’s seventeen proposed RoNS schemes that’s located inside a delicate city context; one, extra so, that’s recognised as a historic setting of nationwide significance (the Basin Reserve Historic Space).

[xv] By an OIA request, we obtained ‘Let’s Get Wellington Shifting, Preliminary Hall Plan (ICP), Strategic Freeway Funding Enterprise Case’, 30 September 2020 and Cowl Letter, dated September 2021.

[xvi] The SH1 Buckle Road Underpass was one other mission we outlined in our Quick-track Approvals Invoice submission. The Authorities’s choice to underground the SH1 part of Buckle Road in entrance of the Nationwide Warfare Memorial in Wellington was beneficial by RRA to Hon. Chris Finlayson, Minister of Arts, Tradition and Heritage, in Could 2012. The trenching of this highway to go underneath Tory Road enabled the creation of the car-free Pukeahu Nationwide Warfare Memorial Park in Wellington (opened 2015). Not like NZTA’s site visitors plan on the time, our resolution for the Basin foresaw that an underpass would considerably enhance journey occasions; in actual fact, by NZTA’s later calculations, 4 occasions greater than their proposed flyover.

[xvii] Basin Bridge Board of Inquiry, 2013–14. The Board highlighted proof from NZTA that each the flyover and BRREO “displayed vital journey time financial savings over the do-minimum state of affairs”, nevertheless it concluded: “We discovered that BRREO might … ship measurable transport advantages at significantly much less price and significantly much less antagonistic results on the setting.”

[xviii] Auckland Metropolis Council commissioners’ choice, Transit NZ designation and useful resource consent utility, SH20 Manukau Harbour Crossing Mission, Onehunga, Auckland, 2007.