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Fast Track Amendment Bill 2025
KASM submission guide

URGENT: Submissions close soon​

The deadline is 2pm, Monday 17 November 2025

or

Stop the Fast Track Power Grab

The Government is once again lowering the bar for seabed mining to go ahead. It’s a political power grab that puts our moana at risk.

 

The Fast Track Approvals Act was already a huge step backwards for democracy and environmental protection.
 

Now the Government wants to make it worse.

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The Fast Track Approvals Amendment Bill hands Ministers even more control, silences community voices, and weakens the independent nature of environmental decision-making.

Why this matters for our moana

​​This Bill doesn’t just threaten democracy. It bypasses the laws and public rights that have kept seabed mining out of Aotearoa’s waters.

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For more than a decade, communities, iwi, and ocean lovers have fought to stop Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) from seabed mining in the South Taranaki Bight.


The Supreme Court confirmed that TTR failed to prove that they would cause “no material harm,” setting a clear environmental bottom line.

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This bill will weaken those safeguards and tilt the process toward wannabe seabed miners.
 

Trans-Tasman Resources’ seabed-mining proposal is already in the fast track process. If these amendments are applied retrospectively, they could interfere with decisions already in motion. The Government is lowering the bar for a project that has continually failed to prove it’s safe. It’s undemocratic and dangerous.
 

We know other seabed-mining companies are eyeing up our waters - if these changes go through, it could open the floodgates to seabed mining all along our black sand coasts.​
 

This Bill would:

  • ​​​Give Ministers more control over which projects go ahead and the power to direct the EPA

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  • Cut the time for expert panels to review complex, high-risk proposals like seabed mining to just 60 working days

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  • Limit who can participate, meaning groups like KASM, iwi, and communities may never be invited to speak on future applications

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  • Replace genuine consultation with token “notification” and remove rights of appeal - the safeguard that has kept seabed mining out of our waters

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  • Allow Fast Track applicants to challenge who sits on panels, letting seabed-mining companies influence who makes the decision

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  • Fail to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi, restricting iwi and hapū participation that has been vital in defending the moana

 

Together, these changes strip away the checks and balances that protect our moana and make a mockery of the justice system and the fight ocean lovers have carried for more than a decade.
 

How to make a submission

  1. Click the red button above to got the parliament website

  2. Add your name and message - it only takes a few minutes. See below for information you could include.

  3. Tick “I want to make an oral submission” if you’d like to speak to the Select Committee.


   Important: The deadline is 2pm, Monday 17 November 2025

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Tips for your submission

  • Make it personal: consider adding a paragraph about your connection to the ocean or local environment, why democratic participation matters to you, what you want for future generations and/or how this Bill would affect your community.

  • Keep it clear: you don't need to be an expert. Clear, heartfelt points are powerful

  • Don't copy-paste entirely: while the info below should help, submissions with unique perspectives carry more weight

What to say

I oppose this Bill in its entirety for the reasons stated below:
 

I oppose the Fast Track Approvals Amendment Bill because it would significantly weaken democracy and environmental protection.
 

This Bill would:

  • Give Ministers even more power to influence and direct decisions, increasing political influence over which projects get approved.

  • Continue to disrespect Te Tiriti: The Act fails to embed an explicit Treaty-obligation clause; it only states that persons must act in a manner consistent with existing Treaty settlements and customary rights.

  • Increase opportunity for corruption in the decision-making process – corporates are able to lobby Ministers behind closed doors.

  • Force rushed decisions, limiting expert panels to just 60 working days to assess even large, complex projects such as seabed mining - an unrealistic timeframe that prevents proper scrutiny of environmental and cultural impacts.

  • Further significantly limit who can participate, making it harder or close to impossible for community groups and NGOs to be heard. Already, the FTAA does not ensure that concerned individuals participate. The proposed amendments in this bill make a very bad situation much worse.

  • Through the reduced timeframes, place undue and unrealistic pressure on already under-resourced organisations and volunteers who stand up for our environment.

  • Remove the rights to appeal for the groups that are discretionarily invited to participate. This is unjust and unprecedented.

  • Allow Ministers to issue "policy statements" that could and probably would favour seabed mining and other extractive industries.

  • Replace genuine consultation with token "notification", shutting the public out of decisions that affect us all.

  • Potentially make retrospective changes to ongoing processes.
     

This Bill opens the floodgates to intergenerational irreversible environmental damage.

Seabed mining has already been referred into the fast track process. These amendments would make it even harder for independent experts and communities to properly challenge harmful projects and defend the moana.

The Select Committee must reject this Amendment Bill in its entirety.
 

In case it does not do this, it must:

  • Restore proper consultation, timeframes, and independent oversight

  • Protect our environment and uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi in all decision-making

  • Ensure projects like seabed mining remain fully assessed under the EEZ Act, not weakened through fast track shortcuts

  • Restore the ability of Panels to secure the assistance of the public they need and at least double the proposed 60-day limit

  • Remove the provision allowing Ministers to issue policy statements and instructions to the EPA

  • Remove the ability of developers to object to potential panelists

  • Introduce a sunset clause to allow projects to be cancelled if they prove damaging

  • Reinstate the right of groups or organisations to appeal on points of law

  • Ensure Te Tiriti o Waitangi is instrumental in government decision-making processes

  • Restore full effect to the EEZ legislation and environmental bottom lines recognised by the Supreme Court

Together for our moana

For twenty years, people across Aotearoa have stood together to protect the ocean from seabed mining.
This Bill is a direct threat to that work and to the democratic processes that protect it.
Let’s stand together again and make sure our voices are heard.

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