Nothing happens without aggregate

Let’s keep the momentum going says Wayne Scott, CEO of the Aggregate and Quarrying Association (AQA).

I’ve commented more than once that ministerial policy announcements are not project start dates. Those emerge when Ministers put the fluoro vests over their suits and are handed a shovel for the photo opportunity. 

But, one has to come before the other and 2024 saw the best progress our quarrying sector has made in recent memory. Not least were eight quarries and one sand dredging operation being in the Government’s list for the Fast-track Approvals Bill. Four are in Auckland, Canterbury got two, Wellington, Northland and Bay of Plenty got one each.

This not only reflects the importance of those quarrying projects but also the fact that most of the projects covered by the Bill need our materials as their foundation. Aggregate was also listed in the Government’s draft and final list of critical minerals. This again recognises that aggregates are fundamental to our future – and that while importation is technically possible, the cost would be astronomical.

We also saw comments last spring from Agriculture Minister Todd McClay confirming that our concerns about the existing National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity had been heard across Cabinet. As it stood, this was too restrictive on land swaps and other mitigations that could actually improve bio-diversity. Minister McClay specifically listed quarrying among those industries getting changes to freshwater and bio-diversity rules in a second RMA Amendment Bill alongside a comprehensive package of regulatory changes to drive growth and productivity.

Two RMA bills amending national direction are due to be passed by mid-year. Ministers have indicated there will be an integrated approach to planning to make it easier to obtain consents for quarrying materials like crushed rock, gravel, and sand. They’ve said this will include a National Environment Standard for Infrastructure that strongly embodies the settings quarrying needs to be able to deliver the foundations for roading and building projects with some uniformity across consent condition requirements. This will be one of seven new national direction instruments and amendments to 14 existing ones, which are all due to be in place by the middle of this year.

I think the AQA can take some credit for these emerging changes after years of patient lobbying, supported by some key industry players. Full credit also to ministers Chris Bishop, Shane Jones, Simeon Brown and their colleagues for making these changes a fundamental Government priority.

The big question for this year is: how do fast policy reforms transfer into projects? Even fast-tracked projects won’t happen immediately. While some critics say it puts economics ahead of the environment, the AQA made clear in its submission to the Fast-track Approvals Bill that quarries did not want lesser environmental and cultural outcomes than those currently achieved under the RMA. What we did want was more certainty and faster timeframes.

We said Expert Panels needed to be properly resourced for the strong economic and environmental analysis required under the Bill. With 149 projects on their list, only a few projects were likely to get through the fast-track process during 2025; even fewer will get through the fully reformed RMA, given its expected mid-year 2026 legislative completion.

So, it’s then we are really looking at before significant change begins to take real effect. This may mean another tough year in 2025 for some quarries and the wider infrastructure industry.

Next year (2026) is also election year which underscores the importance of the emerging moves towards some political consensus on infrastructure, which has to extend to quarrying – which provides the materials for every project.

Infrastructure Commission CEO Geoff Cooper outlined to our 2024 QuarryNZ conference delegation the eye-watering estimate that that we need $1 trillion spent on infrastructure in coming decades. The ASB Bank estimates that would require a 21 percent increase in tax rates or a 98 percent increase in the nation’s debt to GDP ratio by 2050.

Neither are affordable nor politically feasible, so major parties are required to be on board with the need to get more from our infrastructure spend alongside better project selection and better use of existing infrastructure.

We must all keep up the dialogue with our local MPs of any persuasion as well as mayors and councillors. They need to understand that no project – be it a community’s roads, new hospital, cycleways, rail tracks or homes – can happen without quarrying. 

Of course, even if they are there with a shovel to get credit for the start of a project, its often their successors who get to do the ribbon-cutting. Such is the long-term nature of infrastructure, which requires us all to support good policy such as we’ve seen in the past year.