Ryan Bridge: Fast Track Approvals Bill: this is not fast food anymore people, it's like a long lunch for infrastructure construction
Early Edition with Ryan Bridge - A podcast by Newstalk ZB
The fast track approvals bill, it's been in the news in the last couple of days. Fast track - I was thinking fast food, like drive through, how quickly we can get infrastructure done in this country. Something we haven't been able to do very well for a very long time. Like you would drive into the McDonald's or whatever it is to get your speedy infrastructure done. What would you like, sir? I'll have a housing development, I'll have a bridge or perhaps I'll have a mine on the west coast. Drive straight to 3 pay there, Uncle Shane, there's cousin Simeon ready to take your card and then, oh, lo and behold, Chris Bishop gives you a free Sunday, he's on the milkshake machine. Great. Everybody's happy. Bam, bam, bam and you're straight through. But no, not anymore. Now they are going to revise it and they're going to take away some of those quick decisions making power. So the decisions will now be made by, you guessed it, a panel of experts, not ministers. There's a new process that involves environmental experts, Iwi authority representatives, Māori Development and Te Ao Māori experts extended time frames. So this is not fast food anymore people, this is like a long lunch for infrastructure construction in New Zealand. Why can we never just get on and build stuff? Who cares about a bit of corruption, just build it.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.