Money Changes Everything
Fast-Track bill to pay dividends for coalition donors.
Money changes everything
I said money, money changes everything
We think we know what we're doin'
That don't mean a thing
It's all in the past now
Money changes everything
Song: Tom Gray.
Late last year, the Fast-track Approvals Bill passed into law to the consternation of opponents concerned about removing environmental protections, a government that sees mining as the future, and the reduced ability of people to have their say.
At the same time, interested parties welcomed the prospect of beginning work on projects that might have previously been delayed, opposed, or declined, thanks to a government that prioritised their interests.
One eager party was Property Developers Winton, which had banked on the coalition smoothing the way for them through legislation and donated significant amounts to the cause.
CHA-CHING.
To begin our story, we must go back to the last government, when the Ministry of Rubber Stamping was but a glimmer in the eyes of Bishop, Brown, Jones, and Winton.
Taking Kāinga Ora to court.
In 2022, Winton accused Kāinga Ora of anti-competitive behaviour and took them to court, seeking $138m for refusing to fast-track their 5,000-property, Sunfield, subdivision in South Auckland.
The state housing provider said the information Winton provided regarding Sunfield was insufficient to progress under the previous government’s Urban Development Act of 2020, so it did not support fast-tracking their development proposal.
Think about that for a moment. That’s a private company seeking millions of taxpayers’ dollars from Housing NZ because they didn’t like their answer. Winton shareholders were told the company was “absolutely firm in its resolve” to gain approval via the High Court.
The project required 150 hectares to be rezoned for their purposes, and Winton was determined to seek alternative legislative pathways to achieve that.
The National Party gets involved.
Former National MP Steven Joyce was appointed to the Winton board, and director-shareholders Chris and Michaela Meehan donated $103,260 to the party to help fight the 2023 election.
Chris, who is the Chief Executive, said, “As a Winton board member, Steven’s economic, financial and strategic credentials will add considerable value around the board table. He has not been appointed for government relations or political lobbying.”
This is good to know because, to be honest, based on Joyce’s comical performance as a Minister when only he, and no economist, could see an imaginary $11 billion hole, not to mention his spectacularly average academic record, I would have assumed that was exactly the reason.
Steven Joyce was not the only senior National figure helping Winton. Then housing spokesperson Chris Bishop said, “I’m just frustrated that at the time of a housing crisis, you’ve got a private sector development that wants … to fast-track large-scale housing developments, and it looks like there’s one rule for the government and another rule for the private sector. And I think that’s a mistake.”
It is worth noting that Chris Bishop said he was unaware of Meehan’s history of donations to the National Party when he issued a press release supporting Winton’s court case. So that’s nice.
In the months before the election, Bishop said he did not believe he was conflicted by the donation to his party, “I don’t think so. As long as it’s disclosed properly, which has been done, that’s why we have disclosure laws.”
Max Rashbrooke, from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington’s Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, disagreed and said:
“If Chris Bishop became Minister of Housing, ethically, he would not be able to have anything to do with the Winton case. The thing about donations to a political party is that they compromise the entire party in one go, because the whole party is potentially beholden to, or at least in a relationship with, that donor.
I think it makes it very hard for the National Party to make an unbiased decision about Winton’s project.”
ACT Party housing spokesperson Brook van Velden also issued a statement supporting Winton. Coincidentally, Chris Meehan also donated $50,000 to that party earlier in the election year.
While Meehan was donating to National and ACT, he was also running attack ads against the Labour government in the Sunday Star-Times and The Post:
Get Ready to Fast-Track
Fast-forward past the 2023 election to October 6th last year, and while the bill’s passing is still some way off, the Government announced a massive new Fast Track list of 149 projects, one of which is the Sunfield development for Winton Land Limited.
On October 13th, The Post’s Thomas Manch wrote an article about ten controversial projects on the fast-track list.
This covered the history between Kāinga ora and Winton, including the fact that the latter had received support from Chris Bishop, and concluded:
“Adding to the political intrigue was that, once entering Government, Bishop became housing minister and minister in charge of the fast-track scheme. The Winton project is now on the list.
Bishop said any conflicts of interest were being appropriately handled.”
Chris Bishop bows out from the Fast Track Process
On the 11th of October, two days before the article in The Post, or, to put it another way, five days after the list of projects was announced, Chris Bishop, the Minister of Housing and one of three Ministers with special fast-tracking powers, removed himself from the Winton decision.
In his statement, Bishop said, “I identified one project with a potential conflict of interest due to a possible perception of having publicly advocated for it previously, and out of an abundance of caution, I transferred the decision to Minister Brown. That project was Winton Land Limited’s Sunfield development in Auckland.”
The NZ Herald at the time detailed Christopher Meehan’s donations to National and Act in 2022 and 2023 but stated that Minister Bishop “didn’t consider these party donations to pose a conflict of interest.”
Then, on the 31st of October, the Auditor General announced an inquiry into How Ministerial conflicts of interest were identified and managed in relation to Fast-track projects. From an article by Interest.co.nz:
“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.”
Labour MP Arena Williams warns of Cronyism.
The Fast-track Approvals Bill was in committee on December 10th last year; you can read the Hansard here.
Arena Williams asked, “How many tens of millions will Winton Land Co. make on the value of their project that is in Schedule 2 on the passing of this bill?”
Pointing out that the land Winton has paid for the right to purchase will become millions of dollars more valuable when it is fast-tracked and becomes residential land rather than rural land.
The Mill Road project is also being fast-tracked and goes through the middle of Winton’s project. Williams’ concern is that following the introduction of fast-tracking, NZTA will have to pay far more for land, saying:
“This is a public Government entity which is now going to pay out tens of millions of dollars in taxpayers' money for land which was not valuable before and is now. It is not only a private benefit; that is public money going into the hands of Winton Land Co. for a residential development that they have lobbied successive Governments for, and it has been turned down over and over again.”
Another concern Williams highlighted was that councils have rules requiring private developers to share the cost of supporting infrastructure. However, this process does not allow them to do so, leaving the council and the ratepayers on the hook and saving the developer millions.
The Labour MP ended by saying:
“This is unlike anything we have had before. This is the closest New Zealand has ever come to cronyism through the legislative process. This is wrong, and this project should be struck out.”
But don’t we just need more houses?
I think the development style and focus on renewable energy in the Sunfield project look great; we do need more houses, and I have no issue with the development per se.
But I have a big problem with companies bypassing relevant concerns, making a lot of money due to the political decisions of politicians that they donate to, and sticking ratepayers for infrastructure and potential flooding costs that the fast-track process might not fully consider.
Not to mention taking Housing NZ to court in a lawsuit that continues and has escalated to over $300m.
I sympathise with the frustrations surrounding planning delays. Still, it’s madness to believe that discarding safety checks and opportunities for consultation will lead to better long-term solutions.
Yes, development will happen quicker, but at what cost? As with anything like this, if things go badly, you just know we’ll pay for it. It’s the same old, same old: privatise the upside, and the public is on the hook for the downsides.
With the Fast-track Approvals Bill passing on the 17th of December, coverage has been lighter than it would’ve been at another time. Christmas is perfect for things you’d prefer not to be scrutinised too closely. We’ve seen that with a series of contentious bills requiring submissions over the summer break.
One minute, Arena Williams stands up in parliament and says, “OMG, have you seen this?” The next, the public is glazed over with visions of Christmas Hams, BBQs, beaches, and pavlova. When we come out the other side, it’s old news that has been forgotten.
In my view, political donations of this size should disqualify organisations from having their projects fast-tracked, which, at the very least, gives the impression that the two are related.
What do you think?
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Today’s track features Tom Gray, the man who wrote Money Changes Everything, which Cyndi Lauper’s version made famous. The video includes a lovely tale and the song. Sadly, Tom died of cancer in 2021 at the age of 70.
Have a fabulous day all you lovely people. Especially my cousin Nikki, who sent me a video of Arena Williams speaking on this, and was outraged by what she saw.
I just read Geoffrey Palmer's article 'Democracy falls out of favour' (published today). The last bullet points in the article are pretty much a list of the coalition government's actions.
'What are the factors that have produced this global crisis for democracy, not long ago thought to be the final and inevitable form of government?
Here are some likely factors:
* Repeated lying and misrepresentation of the facts by people in authority
* Populist appeals to prejudice and ignorance by demagogic efforts to stir up passion and division, including the articulation of false conspiracy theories
* The sense that democracy has not provided what people want and authoritarian leaders are more likely to do so
* Appeals to racial prejudice and white supremacy
*Serious failures in public policy, neglecting to address important policy issues and chaotic decision-making processes
*Big gaps between the most well off and the least well off in a society, fracturing the sense of community and common purpose.'
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/01/27/geoffrey-palmer-democracy-falls-out-of-favour/
Cronyism is the polite term. The correct word is corruption.