The Auditor-General has announced an inquiry into how conflicts of interest were managed when Ministers were selecting projects to be included in the Fast-track Approvals Bill.
Almost 150 infrastructure and development projects are listed in the proposed legislation and will automatically be referred to a panel for a resource consent decision, if passed into law.
More than 380 projects applied to be included in the bill and ministers selected 149 from a long list compiled by an advisory group.
Several successful applicants had made political donations to the coalition parties which prompted allegations of cronyism from opposition parties.
Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop, who is responsible for the Bill, said conflicts of interest had been carefully managed and Cabinet Office advice had been followed.
Relevant ministers assessed projects within their sectors and made recommendations to Cabinet about which should be included. If a conflict of interest was identified, the decision about that specific project was handed to another minister.
For example, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones was responsible for mining, quarrying, aquaculture, and farming projects.
He identified six conflicts of interest and his associate minister, Tama Potaka, made the decision to include four of these projects. Matamata Metal Supplies and James Murray Aquaculture both missed out.
Bishop himself handed off the decision to approve Winton Land Limited’s Sunfield development in Auckland to his colleague Simeon Brown, as he had advocated for the project while in opposition.
People associated with Winton donated significant amounts of money to the National Party during the campaign, however Bishop said this was not considered a conflict.
Closer look
In a statement on Thursday the Office of the Auditor-General said it would begin an inquiry into how Ministerial conflicts of interest were identified and managed in the process.
“We have decided to examine how any conflicts of interest were identified and managed by Ministers with support from the Cabinet Office when Ministers were making decisions about the projects recently announced for inclusion in the Fast-track Approvals Bill,” it said.
The Auditor-General said he was interested in this because maintaining New Zealand’s reputation for a trusted public sector relies on clear systems to identify and manage conflicts of interest, particularly for high-level government decisions involving public resources.
He also noted there had been “significant public interest in the Fast-track process” which contributed to the decision to carry out an inquiry.
The inquiry will examine how conflicts of interest were identified and managed in relation to Ministerial decisions about which projects to include in the Fast-track Approvals Bill.
It will not look at the underlying policy decisions, the merits of individual projects, or even the decisions to include a particular project. No public comment will be made until the final report is published.
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