5622 (2024). Lan Pham to the Minister for the Environment

5622 (2024). Lan Pham to the Minister for the Environment: Has costs associated with applications and processing of water consents increased, stayed the same, or reduced since the introduction of the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020?

Hon Penny Simmonds: Costs decreased for notified water consents with hearings and increased slightly for non-notified consents without hearings. The median application fee for notified water permit consents with a hearing was $40,492 in the 2019/20 financial year. This dropped to a median fee of $9577 the following financial year 2020/21, and down to $8900 for 2021/22. The median application fee for non-notified water permit consents without a hearing was $1883 in the 2019/20 financial year, $2864 in the 2020/21 financial year and $2553 in the 2021/22 financial year.