33571 (2025). Hon Rachel Brooking to the Minister for Infrastructure

33571 (2025). Hon Rachel Brooking to the Minister for Infrastructure: What is the rationale, if any, behind the capping of financial support to Māori consultation groups to provide comments in the application process under the Fast-track Approvals Act to $10,000 for substantive applications?

Hon Chris Bishop: The Fast-track Approvals (Cost Recovery) Regulations 2025 (the Regulations) prescribe fee, levy and financial contribution amounts payable by applicants under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 (the Act). This includes financial contribution amounts payable to Māori groups who respond to invitations to comment on referral, land exchange and substantive applications. Two financial contribution levels are prescribed for each application type, reflecting that some applications will be medium complexity, only seeking approvals under one Act (such as consents under the RMA), while others will be more complex seeking approvals under multiple Acts (such as the Conservation Act 1987 and Wildlife Act 1953 as well). The Regulations were made before applications could be lodged under the Act, to apply to all applications lodged under it (from 7 February 2025 onwards). More detail about the fee, levy and financial contribution levels that were proposed in light of targeted policy testing, and set in these regulations, is provided in the Ministry for the Environment’s Stage 2 Cost Recovery Impact Statement - Cost recovery and financial contributions under the Fast-track Approvals legislation, found here, https://environment.govt.nz/assets/publications/CRIS-MfE-Fast-track.pdf