Explanation owed
Environment Minister Nick Smith has some serious explaining to do. Revelations in today’s Manawatu Standard about how Dr Smith came to his decision to “call-in” Mighty River Power’s consent application for its Turitea Wind Farm make for startling reading.
Dr Smith’s decision last year to take the consent process away from the Palmerston North City Council because it was of “national significance” angered many Palmerston North residents, not least the council.
But the official advice the Minister received from his staff, obtained by the Standard under the Official Information Act, seriously undermines the national significance justification. Furthermore, contradictory statements Dr Smith has made about the PNCC’s ability to process the consent application are troubling.
In a press release explaining the call-in decision, he said the PNCC was open to allegations of bias because it owns the reserve land where the wind farm would be built.
But the advice he received from the ministry said the “PNCC’s actual conflicts of interest are low” and “we are confident the PNCC can, without bias and at low risk, appoint an appropriately independent panel of commissioners”.
And in a memorandum to cabinet, Dr Smith even said “it is clear that the councils have the capacity to deal with the [resource consent] applications”. So which is it, Dr Smith?
Of eight criteria assessed to determine if the Turitea consent application is nationally significant, only two were met. The fact the wind farm affects two districts was cited (which hardly outweighs all the criteria not met), but what Dr Smith has clearly hung his “national significance” hat on is New Zealand’s obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
So, by that justification, it would seem any application to build a wind farm or renewable energy source is now a matter of national significance, and local interests are secondary.
Palmerston North Mayor Jono Naylor hit the nail on the head when he said, in response to today’s revelations, the council has been treated as “the guinea pigs for this process”.
The National Government has an agenda to reform the Resource Management Act (RMA), which is its prerogative, but Dr Smith’s call-in decision was based on reforms to the RMA that haven’t yet been made.
“The call-in is consistent with my intention to amend the RMA to provide for priority consents for larger scale infrastructure,” he said in the memo to Cabinet.
At best, the documents obtained by this newspaper lay bare a woefully inept decision-making process. At worst, they are evidence of an orchestrated campaign to deceive the people of this region and usurp the council’s statutory role.
Either way, the decision to call-in the consent application was a sham.
By MICHAEL CUMMINGS, Deputy Editor — Manawatu Standard
24 April 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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