Thoughts of Mary Shelley’s best-known creation were generated by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones’ denunciation of the time taken to decide on a mining application in Central Otago.
Always good for a colourful quote, he referred to the work of a ‘constipated bureaucratic beast’.
Thoughts of something like Frankenstein’s Monster came to mind.
In the original book, Victor Frankenstein is a young Swiss natural science student rather than a medical doctor, although popular culture and film adaptations commonly refer to him as “Dr Frankenstein” and – over time – “Frankenstein” has mistakenly been used to refer to the monster.
Frankenstein and the monster were conceived by Mary Shelley in 1816 when she was 18 years old.
The “constipated bureaucratic beast” that has been let loose in Central Otago is the work of a committee.
Correction: it’s much more complicated than that. It’s the work of
In the original book, Victor Frankenstein is a young Swiss natural science student rather than a medical doctor, although popular culture and film adaptations commonly refer to him as “Dr Frankenstein” and – over time – “Frankenstein” has mistakenly been used to refer to the monster.
Frankenstein and the monster were conceived by Mary Shelley in 1816 when she was 18 years old.
The “constipated bureaucratic beast” that has been let loose in Central Otago is the work of a committee.
Correction: it’s much more complicated than that. It’s the work of
- The coalition government’s Cabinet, in which Jones has been a decision-maker;
- The public service advisers who worked on the idea; and
- Parliament, which enacted the legislation after a select committee had considered public submissions.
New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones says the proposed Bendigo-Ophir gold mine has taken too long to advance through the fast-track approvals process, blaming legislation that has taken on the form of a “constipated bureaucratic beast”.
On a visit to the mine site near Cromwell on Tuesday, he reinforced his support for the industry, taking aim at “woke, brittle, anti-mining mythology” as a group of local protesters rallied at the gate.
Jones told a crowd of staff, supporters and other local election candidates that he had previously visited the site about two years ago.
“I wasn’t to know that mythology, falsehoods and misinformation would mar what is a legitimate process i.e. securing the necessary consents so that our country can grow,” he said.
RNZ reminds us that the mining company’s fast-track application was lodged nearly a year earlier, but it has been beset by processing pauses, requests for hundreds of pages of technical evidence, unresolved legal and Treaty hurdles, and pushback from conservation groups.
There has also been “fierce opposition from some locals with concerns about potential impacts on the environment, native species, waterways and existing industries”.
PoO dipped into Hansard to check on what Jones had expected when the legislation was being debated in Parliament.
He was the Minister who moved that the Fast-track Approvals Bill be read a third time.
He said it was legislation built on an initiative that Labour’s David Parker had introduced during the time when COVID had crippled the economy, to fast track the consideration of proposals dedicated to boosting New Zealand’s resilience.
He also said a key feature of the coalition agreement which New Zealand First negotiated with the Nats was the inclusion on the parliamentary agenda of work called the “fast-track bill”.
In some respects, it ought to have been called the “One-Stop Shop Bill”, because the most important development contained in this bill is the attempt that it makes to conflate multiple consents into a singular process so that those New Zealand investors, those investors who are coming from overseas can join us in our efforts to boost not only our wealth but our resilience and can have confidence that there will be an outcome within a short and reasonable period of time.
We now have, arguably, the most permissive regime to effect growth and development in Australasia. Perhaps, for some people in this Parliament, no higher praise could be recited other than the fact that President Trump in America, himself, has now promised to deliver a fast-track bill if you are willing to spend a billion dollars and turn around the greatest capitalist economy in the world. High praise that I will back myself.
But Jones acknowledged that a great deal of work had been undertaken by others – he mentioned the Civil Service, Parliament’s Environment Committee, the people who submitted to the bill.
Fair to say, Jones also said the bill had been changed by the submission process.
And changed it was—against what I campaigned for. The authority under this bill for applications to gain consents, to develop our resources, to build roads, to deliver energy will be made by an independent panel; an independent panel that I’m hopeful will have the quality of people that the independent assessment panel chaired by a well-known lawyer—David Tapsell—undertook the analysis to deliver us the 149 projects that are in the Schedule.
One of the problems with the bill, Jones said, was that it had attracted “a great deal of dangerous rhetoric” from opposition parties.
He particularly focused on the Maori Party.
Applicants on the Schedule within this bill are now receiving letters from the Māori Party. The Māori Party is promising to strip any applicant of their resource consent rights that they may achieve under this bill. Now we have the Venezuelan example here in New Zealand: that if you gave a legal, statutory consent, then you’re going to be stripped of it in the event that the Māori Party forms part of an alternative Government. I can assure you that they have nothing to worry about, because the Māori Party won’t be here at the next election. If the Serious Fraud Office doesn’t drive them out, the people who voted them in will turn their backs on them, because this bill actually embeds genuine statutory engagement and participation rights for Māoridom.
Jones also said the legislation
“… will enrich our nation through the minerals sector. The minerals sector is about to get a great boost off the coast of Taranaki, as a consequence of this bill, where people will have a statutory entitlement to apply for a resource consent—something that has been denied them through mythology, cultural fabrications…
And:
“Why are we doing it? We’re doing it because the country needs an economic boost. It will achieve economic surplus, jobs that will attract New Zealanders back to the Land of the Long White Cloud, certainty for investors, and where there are opportunities for people to participate, it will be limited to those who actually need to participate.
Those who have, in the past, weaponised environmental law, sought to use it for irrelevant purposes such as creating indigenous sovereignty movements inversely related to the wellbeing of New Zealanders or our economy—they will be ruled completely out of court; they will be marginalised because their contribution will not enrich the country.
Jones addressed the question of “Where to from here?”.
The apparatus would soon be in place for the fast-track bill to be operationalised.
I look forward to massive growth in the mining sector. In fact, it was only Friday that an additional $700 million is being invested into the mining sector, on the strength of this bill and, naturally, the quality of the mining Minister’s advocacy. But humility requires me to not say much more about that.
We’ll also see water storage. We’ll see the projects that have been hobbled, undermined, and marginalised through factors that don’t belong in resource management law. Sadly, that side of the House has sought to elevate factors that are inversely related to economic growth and economic development. We are going to see the expansion not only of irrigation and water—because unlike what blighted Hawke’s Bay water development options, this bill gives a level of certainty because decisions will be made on the basis of economic rationalism, scientific certainty, and not fabricating tikanga Māori that lessens the status of Māori culture because it becomes weaponised in the part of ideology that is actually alien and foreign to all Kiwis who want to create an opportunity to boost the economy. The economy boost is coming through fast track.
Mary Shelley intended to create a monster.
Jones – we can be sure – did not.
The general election next month will determine how much muscle New Zealand First can flex in the next government and whether Jones can take the fast-track legislation back to the drawing board.
Bob Edlin is a veteran journalist and editor for the Point of Order blog HERE.
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