The fast-track projects

Chris Bishop and Shane Jones announced:

The 149 projects released today for inclusion in the Government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill will help rebuild the economy and fix our housing crisis, improve energy security, and address our infrastructure deficit, Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop says. …

“While the independent Advisory Group recommended to Ministers a total of 342 projects for inclusion in the Bill, Cabinet chose to include only 149 of them to better reflect the capacity from expert panels to assess and consent these projects,” Mr Bishop says.

Can you imagine the difference it will take if we get 149 projects consented within 12 months rather than eight years?

The 149 projects include:

• Housing: 58 projects creating 55,000 new homes
• Transport: 29 projects including 16 roads, 5 rail projects, 5 port projects and 3 public transport projects totally 180 kms of new transport routes
• Renewable Electricity: 22 projects with combined capacity of 3 Gigawatts. We currently have 9.5 GW so that will increase our capacity by 30% – all renewable with a mixture of solar wind and hydro.
• Mining 11
• Quarrying 8
• Aquaculture/Farming: 7 projects producing 143,000 tonnes per annum

The Government is going to need a lot of qualified lawyers and planners etc for the expert panels!