The Fast Track Approvals Bill has been approved by Cabinet and received its first reading under urgency yesterday, before being sent to the Environment Committee for public submissions.
Projects will become eligible for fast-tracking through one of two ways — either through a referral by the joint decision of the Ministers of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Transport upon an application, or by being listed as a project in Schedule 2A of the Bill.
Once a project has been referred into the fast-track process, it will be considered by a specialist panel which will apply relevant consent and permit conditions.
It comes as several projects in the Otago region are in the exploration or planning phase, such as the Santana Minerals goldmine in the Bendigo area, the Kaihiku Wind farm and possible developments at Macraes Mine.
Santana Minerals Ltd chief executive Damian Spring said a one-stop shop would improve consistency of applications.
"It would address all the inter-linking aspects of a proposal.
"Any effects we put up for mitigation would be consistent across the agencies.
"It’s still early days, and has to go through the normal process of coming into law, but it doesn’t really change what we were planning to do — and that includes consultation with the community, local authorities and mana whenua."
Santana Minerals Ltd is behind the Bendigo-Ophir project in the Central Otago goldfields.
The find is estimated to contain 2.9million ounces of gold which at today’s prices would be worth more than $9.4billion and the company expects to apply for resource consent for mining later this year after the results of test drilling at the 272sqkm Bendigo-Ophir gold prospect, about 10km from Tarras.
OceanaGold senior vice-president for New Zealand legal and public affairs Alison Paul said the company had been advocating for many years for "a regulatory process that enables projects that can prove economic benefit as well as important environmental, cultural and social protections to proceed".
"We have continued to advocate for OceanaGold projects that we believe meet the government’s criteria for significant infrastructure and developments."
OceanaGold owns the Macraes Mine, which is the country’s largest open-scale mine.
Glenpanel Development Ltd director Mark Tylden said his proposal for a 370-residential unit development at Flint’s Park near Ladies Mile in Frankton, Queenstown was before the Environment Court.
"I gather the Bill is going to be aimed at housing and infrastructure.
"I can’t see it’s going to have any immediate impact on us ... but New Zealand needs to up its game, improve its consenting process and reduce the costs so we can get through critical infrastructure projects.
"We are unable to deliver infrastructure in a timely and efficient manner, and it’s affecting our status as a nation."
