Cash incentives offered to fast-track land acquisition for infrastructure
Extra payments to landowners and a ‘streamlined’ objections process will get diggers in the ground more quickly, ministers say.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, March 10.
In today’s edition: Government warned of severe risk to wildlife and food systems from H1N1 bird flu; Christopher Luxon is on the way out, claims Duncan Garner. But first, “we’ve accepted too many reasons to say no” for too long, says the infrastructure minister. The government’s new rules on land acquisition are designed to get to “yes” more quickly.
Extra cash for those who sell up quickly
Landowners who act fast to sell their properties in order to make way for public works will get a bonus payment of up to $150,000 under new rules announced on Sunday. The planned changes to the Public Works Act (PWA) will see owners offered 15% of their land value, capped at $150,000, if they sell before a notice of intention is issued. They’ll also get an extra 5%, capped at $92,000, in recognition of participating in an accelerated process. Landowners who object to the process will petition land information minister Chris Penk directly – or the local authority where relevant – rather than going through the Environment Court. Owners of protected Māori land will get the payments while retaining the right to object to the Environment Court.
Penk denies conflict-of-interest risk
The new objections process will accelerate the acquisition of land needed to build 17 roads of national significance as well as other projects in the Fast Track Approvals Act that qualify as public works. As the Herald’s Jamie Ensor notes, “The fast-track proposal initially gave significant power to three ministers to decide what projects got the green light. That was eventually walked back after an uproar, but conflict- of-interest questions still remained.”
On Sunday Penk said he didn’t believe his involvement in the objections process would raise similar questions, but he’d “obviously” recuse himself if he had a conflict of interest regarding a particular case. “He emphasised there was still the ability for landowners to seek a judicial review of decision-making or challenge the land value to be compensated,” Ensor writes.
More Public Works Act changes coming
The changes, set to be implemented this year, are a precursor to wider reform of the PWA in early 2026. A review of the act completed in October found “unnecessary duplication”, “outdated negotiation processes” and “disjointed government agency practices”, according to Penk. The last major overhaul of the act was in 1988. Among the changes Penk envisions are allowing government agencies like the NZTA to enter into acquisition agreements with landowners and bringing more projects under the remit of the PWA. At present only infrastructure projects that are deemed of national or regional significance can use the act.
The PWA and Māori: a grim history
Speaking in October, Penk said it was unlikely the overhaul of the PWA would affect Māori land since the government saw its acquisition for public works as “very much a last resort proposition”, in part because of the “unfortunate and unfair history” of Māori and the PWA. What is that history? From the moment it became law in 1864, the PWA was used to confiscate Māori land for roads, railways and other government projects. “The Crown often favoured Māori land over general land for these purposes since it could pay the owners less compensation, or none at all,” explains Te Ara. “Land not needed for the purposes for which it was taken had to be offered back to the original owners. The Crown often failed to apply this section.”
As historian Vincent O’Malley remarked to the Herald’s Julia Gabel last year: “One of my standing jokes is that one of the reasons New Zealand roads are so windy is they go from one piece of Māori land to the next, avoiding all the European lands nearby.”
Have thoughts? Join the conversation in the comments.
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H1N1 poses severe risk to wildlife and food systems, government told
A cabinet paper setting out how the government will manage the potential incursion of the H1N1 bird flu virus has warned of dire consequences for wildlife and food systems, Newsroom’s Andrew Bevin reports (Pro, paywalled). The paper, dated October 2024 but released last week, warns that the virus’s arrival from Antarctica could occur during the next 12 months; we are now five months into that window. While H1N1 has few health risks for humans, the risks to wildlife are severe. New Zealand’s “high number of endemic species means significant fatalities would increase extinction risk and represent a major setback in ongoing species recovery efforts”, Bevin writes. The virus has also shown to be deadly to marine mammals.
Free-range poultry farms, making up around 40% of egg production, are particularly vulnerable due to the risk of exposure to infected wild birds. Should H1N1 be detected in NZ, the poultry industry wants to be able to bring free range flocks inside to lower the risk, but their eggs to still be sold as free range.
Luxon on the way out, claims Garner
Christopher Luxon is living on borrowed time as prime minister, argues Duncan Garner in a brutal column in the Listener (paywalled). “I believe Luxon is the least effective PM in 30 years,” Garner writes. “Honestly, I don’t think he knows what to do or how to do it, and if that seems harsh, show me evidence of why it’s not true.” Luxon's numerous public missteps, including a disastrous interview on Newstalk ZB, have triggered internal dissent within the National Party, Garner claims, with speculation that senior figures are discussing his removal. “So, the next two polls are critical for Luxon. Slide further and National’s coup will happen sooner rather than later. As it stands, he’s on borrowed time; if he’s still there at Christmas I’ll be most surprised.”
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Isn't it sad that ANYTHING this govt does raises suspicion of "conflicts of interest" & pandering to big money? If the Public Works Act has been in place for so long, possibly it is due for a tweak or two, but the last people I would trust to do it ethically & for the actual good of the public is those who have the portfolios right now 🥹👀
"[Chris Penk] emphasised there was still the ability for landowners to seek a judicial review of decision-making"
So instead of going to the Environment Court, dissatisfied landowners will have to seek a judicial review in the High Court, where the lists are already badly clogged up. Because their substantive case would probably not come up for a year or two, presumably they will also have to seek an urgent preliminary injunction preventing the Minister implementing his disputed decision - more cloggage for the High Court.
I can't say this seems to be much of a process improvement