Greenpeace says that today's announcement of a fast-track advisory group with no discernible environmental expertise adds insult to injury and shows just how little regard the Luxon Government has for the environment.

The coalition Government claims its ‘expert advisory group’ will provide independent recommendations to Ministers on projects to be included in the Fast Track Approvals Bill.

Greenpeace spokesperson Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Rarotonga) says: "It really rubs salt into the wound to see the Luxon Government’s new fast-track advisory panel stacked with executives from extractive industries and nobody with any discernible expertise in environmental protection - or any process that genuinely allows Tāngata Whenua contribution and participation."

"For a process that could fast-track projects with significant environmental impacts, such as seabed mining, large-scale irrigation schemes and dairy expansion, new coal mines on conservation land, and who knows what else, there must be some credible environmental expertise on the advisory panel," says Lee.

"This shows how little regard the Luxon Government has for the environment at a time when the world is suffering an extinction crisis."

"It’s also a clear case of industry capture. An advisory panel made entirely of industry representatives means that the whole process appears to be riddled with conflict of interest and wide open to allegations of corruption," says Lee.

Greenpeace has been a vocal critic of the fast-track approvals bill since its introduction and has mobilised supporters to make submissions against it.

Lee says almost 5,000 Greenpeace supporters have taken the time to make a submission opposing the fast-track bill, and the number is climbing every hour.

"Thousands of people making submissions opposing the fast track shows how much opposition there is, and this is just the start of the resistance this Government will face if this bill proceeds.

"Just like the oil industry faced a decade of relentless resistance from iwi, environmental groups and people all over Aotearoa, so too will anyone who would try and dig up conservation land, wreck rivers or mine the seabed."

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