On 13 April 2026, the Bream Bay Sand Extraction project expert panel commenced work. The panel consists of:
Catherine Somerville-Frost (Chair)
Catherine is a specialist resource management lawyer with over 25 years' experience consenting major developments and guiding clients through due diligence, compliance, policy and reform processes. With a background in top-tier national law firms, she was an environmental and resource management partner at Chapman Tripp for close to fifteen years.
Catherine has significant breadth and depth of environmental law expertise. She has assisted clients across the spectrum, including those involved in the provision of utilities infrastructure (gas, electricity, water and telecommunications) and transport infrastructure (road, rail, port and airport), major industrial, commercial and retail developments, residential community development (structure planned and retirement), mining (onshore and offshore), and electricity generation (hydro, wind, solar and geothermal).
Catherine is recognised as a leading lawyer by Chambers Asia Pacific 2023 and 2024, and Chambers Global 2020.
Catherine has chaired three other expert panels for fast-track applications, the Stevensons Crescent residential development proposal under the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020, the Glorit Solar Farm proposal under the Natural and Built Environment Act 2023 and the Drury Quarry Expansion (Sutton Block) project under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024.
Troy Brockbank
Troy Brockbank (Te Rarawa, Ngāti Hine, Ngāpuhi, Ngātiwai, Ngāti Kahu) is Te Mana o te Wai Lead at Beca, with over 20 years’ experience in water and environmental systems. He is a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand and holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering. Troy has worked across central and local government, iwi, and private sector projects. He brings a strong Te Ao Māori lens to statutory and technical decision‑making, grounded in kaupapa Māori and values‑based practice.
He is a certified RMA decision maker and has provided expert evidence in the Environment Court. Troy is active in governance and advisory roles and is recognised for operating at the interface of technical evidence, tikanga‑informed process, and regulatory frameworks.
Dr Malcolm Green
Mal’s 45-year career in marine science has spanned academic research, consulting, outreach and RMA decision-making.
He has a BSc (1st Class Hons) in Marine Science from the University of Sydney and a PhD from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and spent 6 years at the University of Cambridge doing post-doctoral research in the shallow seas around the British Isles. He has published first-author, peer-reviewed technical articles on waves, seabed boundary-layer processes, estuarine and inner-shelf sediment transport, beach processes and morphology, flow–biota interactions, and turbidity maxima in estuaries, amongst other things.
He was Principal Scientist for Estuarine and Coastal Physical Processes at NIWA, where he led a large MBIE-funded research programme that was developing the science, information and tools needed for limits-based management of freshwater and estuarine ecosystems under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSFM).
After leaving NIWA, Mal joined Streamlined Environmental Ltd in Hamilton, a boutique science consultancy service, where he was a partner and director. Mal currently works for himself under the umbrella of RMA Science in Hamilton
In the consulting sphere, and while at NIWA and Streamlined, Mal led major projects that: assessed risk to marine benthos associated with sediment runoff into the CMA from development at Okura and at Whitford (both Auckland); predicted heavy-metal accumulation in Whangarei Harbour, Waitemata Harbour and Manukau Harbour to support long-term planning; provided the science needed to underpin a business case seeking funding for rehabilitating Kaipara Harbour; reviewed and advised on marine water quality standards for Waikato Regional Council; and helped set limits for sediments in Porirua Harbour for Greater Wellington Regional Council as part of their implementation of the NPSFM.
Mal is a certified RMA Decision Maker and has served as an independent commissioner on panels hearing applications for resource consents for port expansion, mangrove clearance, wastewater treatment plant operation, river-bed gravel mining and fertiliser production.
Register of Interests
The register records all relevant panel members' interests and is updated, when necessary, throughout the consenting process.