Forward Opposes the Fast-track Approval Act

The Fast-track Approval Act (after passing its third reading this week) is an intergenerational nightmare.

The Act allows mammoth, community-altering projects to be approved with no local community consultation required, no public notification until after they are approved, no requirement to test projects against environmental limits (not even the protection of communities’ drinking water sources).

There is little or no national strategy to projects, no consideration of the long-term needs of communities and the nation (beyond short-term extractionism driven by an unexamined ideological belief that any and all deregulation is “good for the economy”). There is no understanding in our Government that ecosystem health is essential to our own stability, security, health and economy (the Fast-track Approvals Act is just one of the many demostrations of this).

If you live in Queenstown, or anywhere in Aotearoa for that matter, please get savvy on what this Act means for your local community and region, and prepare to join others to fight to protect this beautiful place from irreversible damage.

Full article on the @guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/dec/18/new-zealand-mining-bill-fast-track-approvals-legislation
Words: Marnie Prickett