South Island Resource Recovery Ltd (SIRRL) has emerged in the Canterbury quotient of the long-awaited Fast Track Approvals Bill list. You could reasonably predict that many in the long-suffering Waimate community will feel cheated and disgusted at the consideration of a gigantic rubbish-burning incinerator on precious farmland as critical infrastructure.
For three years, the company that wants to build the huge ‘Project Kea’ waste-to-energy incinerator has publicly made known its intention to request public notification of its consent applications. This gives the community a crucial right to make submissions in the consenting process. However, it has become clear that SIRRL, with the assistance of a public manipulations firm, Convergence Communications, has been actively working to exclude the community from the process by seeking to expedite its resource concerts under the fast-track legislation.
The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approved the land sale for the incinerator site in March. It was endorsed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis as not contrary to New Zealand’s national interest.
An OIA request revealed a curious move by Willis to remove a condition imposed on the consent by the OIO; her decision not limiting but effectively allowing the company to import waste. When asked by Newsroom journalist David Williams about that decision, Minister Willis’s response was that it was a matter best handled by the Environment Court, as directed by previous Environment Minister David Parker.
Advice from a cross-agency panel from MfE, MBIE and Te Whatu Ora was included but a critical human health assessment by Te Whatu Ora was also to be bypassed directly to the Environment Court.
The MfE advice to Willis suggested that the proposal had many potentially adverse environmental effects, including undermining government waste minimisation policies, monopolising NZ’s waste management infrastructure, and threatening NZ’s global greenhouse gas commitments.
The report rightfully questioned the proposal’s validity within a NZ context, the applicant’s character, and the credibility of its calculations. Large parts of the report relating to national security were redacted, including material about the Chinese shareholder company CNTY and its Chinese government ownership.
Still, the government added the proposal to its fast-track list, stating that the fast-tracking determination process running parallel to the OIO was thorough and included input from MfE, yet advocating a path that did not require Environment Court scrutiny.
When questioned on her waste importation allowance, Willis said “I don’t recall being lobbied on the matter.”
Given that Convergence, SIRRL’s public relations firm prides itself on being a ‘government lobbying specialist’ with a representative strategically planted in Wellington for that purpose, it’s fair to presume they were in the government’s ear.