Rangitira Developments Ltd v Sage

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

High Court of New Zealand

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

09/12/2019

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Mitigation

SUBJECT MATTER

Coal mine

REVIEW TYPE

Judicial review

SUMMARY

[1] Rangitira Developments Ltd (RDL) holds a coal mining permit over an area of some 860 ha in the Buller District of the West Coast. Acquired in 1995 the permit, MP 41289, gives RDL the right to mine the land subject to conditions including a condition that RDL obtains access to the land within which RDL proposes to develop and operate an opencast coal mine near Te Kuha, 12 km east of Westport.

[2] In February 2014 RDL applied under the Crown Minerals Act 1991 for an “access arrangement” to access 12 ha of land within the mining permit area. RDL’s application was declined on 15 June 2018 by the Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Energy and Resources and the Hon Eugenie Sage, Minister of Conservation.

[3] In this application for judicial review RDL seeks to have the Ministers’ decision set aside as unlawful. Broadly speaking RDL’s case is that:

(a) the refusal was inadequately informed, and the decision was tainted by errors of law in the advice from officials;
(b) important updated information about RDL’s application was not provided to Ministers with the consequence that they were not fully and fairly informed; and
(c) prior to becoming Minister of Conservation, Ms Sage had been a prominent and longstanding critic and opponent of a coal mine at Te Kuha and she exercised her discretion unfairly by reason of apparent bias or pre-determination.

CASE DOCUMENTS

Rangitira Developments Ltd v Sage [2020] NZHC 1503