Excellent article on the Fast-track bill’s implications from an economical viewpoint in The Conversation, and re-run in RNZ, by Professor Glenn Banks of Geography, School of People, Environment and Planning, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa – Massey University –
Professor Banks writes “Much of the debate about the fast-track applications by a number of new or extended mining projects has, understandably, focused on their environmental impacts. But the other side of the equation – economic growth and investment, the government’s rationale for new mines – is rarely interrogated.
In fact, the environmental and economic debates are inseparable. Section 85(3)(b) of the Fast Track Approval Act allows for project applications to be declined if any “adverse impacts are sufficiently significant to be out of proportion to the project’s regional or national benefits”.
So, the claims of economic benefits from the current round of proposals need to be scrutinised closely. If those benefits don’t stack up, any adverse environmental impacts become harder to justify.
Having spent more than 35 years researching and consulting on mining projects and mineral policy in the Pacific, I have noted several important economic characteristics of the mining industry…”
Read Glenn Banks’ full article:
https://theconversation.com/the-hard-questions-nz-must-ask-about-the-claimed-economic-benefits-of-fast-track-mining-projects-259779