TL;DR: The coalition Government has ticked off the last major item in its 100-day plan that expires today, shoving its Fast Track Approvals Bill through its first reading in Parliament under urgency. It would give ministers ultimate power to approve massive projects that prioritise economic growth over the environment.
It is a return to the sort of powers then National PM Robert Muldoon assumed in the National Development Act (1979) to bulldoze through Think Big projects such as the Clyde Dam. The Act unleashed a backlash of conservative and liberal activism that ultimately led to the 1984 landslide rejection of Muldoon, and the creation of the Resource Management Act. It was one driver towards MMP.
The National-ACT-NZ First Government yesterday lauded the bill’s creation of massive, broad and deep powers for individual ministers and a ‘one-stop-shop’ for consents for major projects as moving from ‘cancel economics’ to ‘can-do economics’.
The usually circumspect and longtime-CEO of the Environmental Defence Society, Gary Taylor, described it as:
‘The Government’s war on nature going nuclear’
Echoing the title of former Labour PM Geoffrey Palmer’s seminal book on how Aotearoa-NZ’s political system concentrates power in the hands of Cabinet, Green Co-Leader James Shaw said in Parliament yesterday:
‘We've gone from unbridled power to unhinged power through the use of this bill’
History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes.
(Paying subscribers can see more detail and analysis below the paywall fold and in the podcast above immediately. I’ll open it up for full public reading, listening and sharing if paying subscribers want me to by liking this article more than 100 times.)
Elsewhere in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6 am:
Public health researchers published a paper in the NZ Medical Journal this morning showing the percentage of doctors’ practices that are closed to new patients or limiting enrollments rose from 43% in 2019 to 72% by the end of 2022, which the paper’s authors said was worsening demand pressure on an already overwhelmed hospital system and widening health inequities.
Housing and Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop announced last night the Government would amend the Overseas Investment Act to create a new streamlined consent pathway to allow foreign investors to buy land for Build-To-Rent apartment complexes, or to buy an existing one, in order to increase supply of affordable rentals.
The CTU published an analysis this morning showing a public spending and investment shortfall of up to $19.9 billion within four years if the population keeps growing as fast as it did last year and the new Government follows through with plans to cut spending and investment without massively reducing migration.
Overseas, overnight, in geo-politics and the global economy:
US President Joe Biden is set to propose lifting the minimum corporate tax from 15% to 21% and imposing a 25% income tax for billionaires in his State of the Union address later today in order to cut US Government debt by US$3 trillion over the next decade. Reuters
The European Central Bank held its main policy interest rate at 4% as expected overnight, but lowered its inflation forecast for 2024 to 2.3% from 2.7% and President Christine Lagarde said the ECB had begun looking at easing. She said she wanted more evidence that wage growth and profit margins were easing, but that the central bank would know a lot more by June. Reuters
Data out overnight showed China's export and imports grew more than expected in February, suggesting an improvement in global trade. Exports from Taiwan, South Korea and Germany all beat forecasts in January and February, with the Asian economies benefiting from a surge in demand for semiconductors. Reuters
Unbridled power returns for ministers to approve projects
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Kākā by Bernard Hickey to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
