Greenpeace Aotearoa backs the Green Party’s promise to cancel all fast-track consents, licences, or permits granted for coal, seabed, and hardrock gold mining projects, calling it an essential move to protect communities and the environment.
“The fast-track process is designed to bulldoze over environmental protections, so it is essential that the consents for the most devastating projects are revoked,” said Niamh O’Flynn, Greenpeace Aotearoa programme director.
“Revoking these specific fast-track consents is non-negotiable for nature and the climate,” O’Flynn added.
“These are toxic, destructive mining projects, so we expect the Green Party will make revoking these consents a bottom line if they are in a position of negotiating a coalition agreement in 2026.”
The Green Party has currently identified seven specific projects where consents or permits would be revoked, including the Taranaki VTM project by Trans Tasman Resources and the Waihi North project by Oceana Gold.
O’Flynn described the Fast-Track Approvals Act as “a disaster that needs to be completely repealed.”
“It builds in a lack of transparency and consultation and is anti-democratic. It allows projects that have already been denied by the highest court in the land and overwhelmingly opposed by iwi, local communities and experts.”
“This commitment sets the stage, but the ultimate goal must be to ban this destruction outright, regardless of the consenting mechanism. We must secure Aotearoa’s wild places for future generations,” O’Flynn added.