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1 month ago | 
lexology.com | Sally Mckechnie |Mike Wakefield |Matt Conway |Sarah Mitchell |Hamish Harwood |Sarah Scott
On Monday, the High Court upended years of the Department of Conservation’s (DoC) practice in relation to the granting of permits which authorised ‘killing’ under the Wildlife Act 1953 (Act) in Environmental Law Initiative v Director-General of the Department of Conservation & Ors.[1] Litigation Partner, Sally McKechnie spoke to Stuff’s political editor yesterday about the wide-reaching ramifications of this decision and why it’s a cloud hanging over the government’s Infrastructure Investment...
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1 month ago | 
lexology.com | Sally Mckechnie |Nick Chapman |Tim Bremner |Matt Conway |Mike Wakefield
Pressure groups are increasingly using judicial review and the courts as a vehicle for policy changes. In recent months, the Environmental Law Initiative (ELI) have won six cases in relation to the marine, freshwater and biodiversity decision makers.
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1 month ago | 
lexology.com | Ben Upton |Don Holborow |Dominic Toomey |James Hawes |Joanna Lim |Josh Cairns | +1 more
Following our last article, the debanking debate has taken a new turn with NZ First MP Andy Foster's anti-debanking Member’s Bill being drawn from the parliamentary ballot barely a week after it was announced. The Bill raises questions about the balance between commercial freedom and the ‘right’ to banking services.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Hamish Harwood |Sally Mckechnie |Bill Loutit |Matt Conway |Mike Wakefield |Padraig McNamara | +4 more
The Fast Track Approvals Bill (the FTAB) has emerged from the Environment Select Committee with wholesale changes throughout. Some of the main changes have already been foreshadowed, others not. A selection of the key changes are summarised and discussed below. We will provide more detailed analysis of the FTAB in the coming weeks that will be posted on our Fast-track resource centre which is available here.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Rob Macredie |Chris Browne |Simon Vannini |Michaël Sage |Nina Blomfield |Sally Mckechnie
On 11 October 2024, the Government released a new Policy Statement (GPS) for the electricity industry, outlining priorities and providing clear signals to the Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko (EA) and wider sector about the expected regulatory settings during the Government’s term in office. The EA must have regard to the GPS when carrying out its role as the energy sector regulator.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Jania Baigent |Karen Ngan |Michelle Dunlop |Richard Watts |Sally Mckechnie
Key takeawaysThe Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has released a summary of the 250 submissions it received in response to its consultation on a proposed Biometrics Privacy Code of Practice (Code). The submissions highlighted the need for the Code to be simplified and refined to appropriately target key harms presented by biometric technologies, without unduly stifling innovation.
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May 28, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Karen Ngan |Michelle Dunlop |Sally Mckechnie |Jania Baigent
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) initiated the Children and Young People's Privacy Project (Project) to assess the effectiveness of current laws in safeguarding children's personal information. In this article we discuss the Project’s key findings and the three themes that emerged.
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May 27, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Sally Mckechnie |Gerald Lanning |Nick Chapman |Louise Felicia Goodwin
Climate change litigation is increasingly a global trend, where individuals or groups seek to use the Court to force change. In the recent case Students for Climate Solutions Incorporated v Minister of Energy and Resources, the Court of Appeal has reinforced that Parliament’s legislative intent reigns supreme. The Court found that the purpose of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 (CMA) on mining is for the economic development of New Zealand.
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May 10, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Nina Blomfield |Sally Mckechnie |James Craig |Nick Chapman |Sam Comber |Amarind Eng
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Qantas have recently reached an agreement over Qantas' marketing for thousands of ‘ghost tickets’ for flights it had already decided to cancel. They will now ask the Federal Court to impose a penalty of A$100 million on Qantas for breaching the Australian Consumer Law. The case is an important reminder about the possible risks associated with misleading advertising.
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Apr 11, 2024 | 
lexology.com | Sally Mckechnie |Hamish Harwood |Bill Loutit |Matt Conway |Mike Wakefield |Sarah Scott | +1 more
Much has been written about the Fast-track Approvals Bill since it was released a few weeks ago and much of the commentary has focused on resource consents and the intended “Fast Track” elements of the Bill. This update puts the focus on the “one-stop” shop process created by the Bill, which is intended to lead to better coordination and timely decisions for various Crown permits and approvals (alongside the RMA processes).
