Join NZPI & RMLA for a lunchtime panel discussion on the Fast Track Approvals Bill
The Environment Committee has concluded its hearing of submissions on the Fast Track Approvals Bill and is expected to release its report on the 18th of October. Government has also released a list of projects to be included in Schedule II of the Bill, which will form part of the Committee’s report back to the House. NZPI will host a panel discussion on the recommendations in the report and will speak to different parts of the Bill.
Join our panellists Gina Sweetman, Doug Fairgray, Helen Andrews, and Emily Grace for a summary and discussion of the Committee’s report. The panellists will take this opportunity to highlight how the report aligns with what was sought by NZPI and RMLA’s in their key submission points.
Meet the Panellists
Gina Sweetman: Gina is an experienced RMA hearings chair and commissioner with a wide range of planning, policy and project management experience, having worked for over 28 years in local government, central government and private practice. She has a strong knowledge of all aspects of Resource Management Act (RMA) and wider natural resources planning in New Zealand, with particular strengths in policy analysis and advice, statutory planning, freshwater policy, Māori planning issues, training and implementing best RMA practice into everyday practice.
Gina is an accredited RMA Commissioner and a Government appointed Freshwater and Development Contributions Commissioner. More recently she has been contracted to NZPI as a Consultant Chief Advisor to the Ministry for the Environment and was a awarded a Fellow of the Institute in 2023.
Doug Fairgray: Doug has 40 years of consulting and research experience, and established Market Economics Ltd in 2001 after 7 years as Managing Director of McDermott Fairgray Group. He is frequently engaged as an expert witness for proceedings in Environment Court, Environmental Protection Authority, as well as High Court and Supreme Court. Douglas is a qualified Hearings Commissioner through the Making Good Decisions framework, and an Associate of the NZPI.
Doug has expertise in examining how business and community activities have effect on core RMA and LGA matters, driving social, economic and cultural wellbeing, and urban sustainability.
Helen Andrews: Helen is a Director at Environmental Lawyers, a boutique legal practice. She’s an environmental and resource management lawyer, specialising in the consenting of commercial and residential projects of all scales and across a range of industries.
She represents clients in complex negotiations/mediations, at Council, Environment Court and Board of Inquiry hearings, and before the High Court. Helen has acted for the applicant in respect of the Turitea Board of Inquiry, and as legal advisor to the Board for both the MacKays and Basin Bridge Boards of Inquiry. She also has significant Iwi experience, most notably having advised Waikato-Tainui on resource management matters in the settlement of their Treaty of Waitangi claim regarding the Waikato River.
Emily Grace: Emily is NZPI’s Principal Policy Advisor and led the preparation of NZPI’s submissions to the Bill. She is also leading NZPI’s policy response to the Government’s wider suite of reforms and will facilitate this valuable panel discussion.
Hope you can join us online soon!