Perspective with Ryan Bridge: Fast track isn't fast enough

So fast track has a problem - it's not fast enough.

Eight months in, only two projects have been approved. The mining in Taranaki is still undergoing consultation. AKA: delayed.

The word is that every man and his dog is lining up to have their say, including Mount Taranaki - literally. How you ask a mountain its thoughts and feelings is beyond me, but are we even surprised anymore?

Shane Jones is miffed because the EPA, which is looking into all this, has apparently hired a former Forest and Bird lawyer - and all this while we've got $850m in minerals just sitting there.

Now, all of this could have been avoided if the Government didn’t cave to the media and the legal scholars and the green mafia, and just give politicians all the power to override whatever they want. So the delays and the consultation are by design.

And in Auckland, you’ve got Eden Park.

Eden Park, they tell us, is choking under regulation. So why not use your new RMA superpowers to unshackle it?

You can’t. You have to consult first. Why? Because, again, the Government specifically designed the law changes this way.

The windmills they want to put in Taranaki - one local hapū is taking their opposition to the UN.

You can see the problem here, can’t you?

This country is its own worst enemy. We bitch and moan about the GDP number. We freak out about the manufacturing jobs disappearing. Rightly so - but as soon as it’s time to do something about it, to create something new like an industry or a mine, we oppose it. We slow it down. We delay.

Either we accept that you can’t have everything for nothing, and that creating new jobs and growth will cost us something but it’s worth it. Or we accept that, actually, we're to be poor and happy to stay that way.

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