What you can do right now
Make a submission On Fast-track approvals ammendment bill before 2pm Mon 17 Nov 2025
We need your help to make a submission and stop the Government making more destructive changes to environmental and freshwater protections.
Last week, the Government introduced an amendment to the Fast-track Approvals Act to Parliament. If you hadn’t heard, the Fast-track Approvals Act is a law that allows large and potentially damaging projects, like big dams, irrigation schemes and mines, to be approved with only ‘consideration’ given to what would normally be strong environmental protections. It overrides any protection for rivers and lakes under our national policy for freshwater and doesn’t even require the protection of communities’ drinking water. Now, the Coalition has proposed a number of further changes to the Act that weaken the very few protections in it even further.
We need your help to make a submission and tell the Government not to progress with the proposed changes.
The closing date for submissions is 2.00pm on Monday, 17 November 2025.
We need to submit as soon as possible so we don’t miss the deadline. You can also ask to give an oral submission, which is great to do too if you have time for it.
While the Government is claiming these changes are a targeted measure to improve competition in the supermarket sector and to deal with ‘teething problems’, those reasons are a deliberate distraction. New Zealanders need to know that this bill contains dangerous changes that have serious and intergenerational consequences for communities, freshwater, and democracy.
We’ve prepared a short list of statements you can make in a submission to tell the Government you oppose these changes. You can copy and paste these statements into the submission form on the Government website here.
Don’t worry about making it too complicated. You can also write about any local environmental harm you’re worried about (for example, from proposed Fast-track projects near your community), its potential impact on your community or the places you love, and why you support strong environmental protection.
Things you might like to say:
I oppose the changes that would restrict who the decision-making panels can invite to comment on Fast-track applications, because this will mean panels can make decisions despite major information gaps and without speaking to the people who will be most impacted by a new development.
I oppose the changes that would reduce the timeframe for parties like the Department of Conservation to provide comments on referral applications to just 15 days. They cannot be expected to provide robust advice on major projects like dams and mines in this timeframe.
I oppose the changes that direct decision-making panels to reach final decisions within a maximum of 60 days, regardless of the project’s complexity. These compressed timeframes will lead to bad decisions and long-term problems for communities and the country.
I oppose changes that limit appeal rights to those that a panel must invite comments from. This will unfairly cut independent environmental watchdogs, like NGOs, from the process.
I oppose changes that make it possible for the Minister to define what a “significant regional or national benefit” is. This will allow a Minister to arbitrarily decide what is important and lead to bad decisions.
I oppose changes allowing applicants to complain about the ‘suitability’ of panel members if they feel a member is not impartial. Applicants should have no influence over panel appointments.
I oppose changes that enable the Minister to tell the Environmental Protection Authority how it should function. This could lead to conflicts of interest.
I oppose changes that allow the government to change the law again without going through Parliament. This is an abuse of power.
Send a postcard to Luxon
We have postcards you can send FREEPOST to Christopher Luxon to let him know that you are one of the majority of NZers who love their local rivers & lakes, & who stand against his Government's changes to do away with the legal protections the public fought so hard to win under previous Governments.
We are keen to send them out in bundles to people who are happy to get a few signed. To manage our postage costs, the minimum number we'll send out is 15 but happy to send more than this if you know you can get them signed & sent.
We've put a short form together to collect names & contact details for postcard bundles here: https://forms.gle/4qjhJnzNgXqD4oB88
We will delete all personal details shared in this form after we send out all the postcards but if you would like to join our mailing list, scroll to the bottom of this page & enter your email there.
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