A roller coaster ride
It's all about going fast
The EEZ and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Act 2012 is all about going fast – applications get lodged, heard and decisions are made in a process that has been designed to avoid unnecessary delays. Government, no doubt wary of twenty plus years of protracted RMA debates, has locked the Environmental Protection Authority (which appointed the Decision Making Committee) and participants in the process into turn-around times that have left us, quite frankly wheeling. Thankfully we are all well used to thinking on our feet.
FINZ submitters led by Jeremy Helson, our new CEO, have been working with Aquaculture New Zealand and our lawyer to wade through knee-deep evidence, often filed late, and the expert cross examination to distil down our concerns into some pretty simple questions: Have the lawfully existing rights and economic interests of commercial fishing and aquaculture been adequately understood, recognised and protected? Has our fishing data from catch effort returns been properly used? Is there sufficient certainty about what impact the mining would have? Are the right sort of conditions being attached to the consent that will trigger alerts and the correct management responses?
Yesterday the EPA announced it has now adjoined the hearing and will consider all the information it received in closing submissions. Here is the Fisheries Inshore close, or read about the application here
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