Expert Panel

On 16 February 2026, the panel convener appointed the panel. The panel consists of:

Kitt Littlejohn (chair)

Kitt Littlejohn is a practicing lawyer with over 25 years’ post-admission experience. He has specialised in resource management, environmental, land, local government and administrative law for much of that time.

Kitt has also been qualified as independent hearing commissioner since 2008 and regularly chairs RMA and local government related hearings for local authorities throughout the North Island.

Tim Vial

Tim is an environmental and planning specialist with 24 years' experience in regional and district consenting. Tim is a full member of the New Zealand Planning Institute and a certified hearing commissioner. Tim has been a panel member on district and regional consent applications, and recovery plan hearings under the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act.

While Tim has experience across a broad range of planning and environmental matters. He has specific expertise in tikanga Māori, mātauranga Māori, and kaupapa Māori decision-making contexts. Tim is presently employed as Kaiwhakamahere Matua (Senior Planner), Wai Māori, at Aukaha Limited.

Dr Kaley Crawford-Flett

Dr Kaley Crawford-Flett is a civil (geotechnical) engineering specialist with over 20 years’ experience. Kaley’s career spans research, consulting, and technical leadership across dam safety, geotechnical engineering, seismic resilience, and risk assessment. She has extensive experience working at the intersection of engineering practice, infrastructure risk management, and regulatory frameworks, gained through roles in academia, private and not-for-profit engineering practice, and independent consultancy.

Kaley has held senior research and advisory positions and has contributed to national engineering resilience initiatives, providing specialist input and technical coordination for government-convened dam safety and seismic risk working groups. Her experience also includes leadership as Immediate Past Chair of the New Zealand Society on Large Dams (NZSOLD).

Kaley holds a BE (Hons) (Civil) from the University of Canterbury and a PhD (Civil Engineering) from the University of British Columbia, Canada. She is an active contributor to industry guidelines, serves as a peer reviewer for technical publications, and is experienced in the application of engineering evidence within hazard, infrastructure performance, and regulatory contexts.

Tony Cussins

Tony Cussins is a Director and Principal Environmental Scientist at Cussins Environmental Consulting.

He has over 20 years' experience as an Accredited Independent Hearing Commissioner (with Chair Endorsement). 

He has sat on a number of RMA, COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting), and Fast-track Approvals panels throughout New Zealand.

He has specialist expertise in water resources management, human health and environmental risk assessment, contaminant hydrogeology and contaminated land management.  

Tony has provided expert evidence in resource consent hearings, the District Court, Environment Court, High Court and the Government Inquiry into Havelock North Drinking Water. 

He has extensive experience in water resources development, land development and hazardous waste projects in New Zealand, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

John Iseli

John is an experienced air quality scientist, having worked in this field in New Zealand for 32 years. He directs an air quality consulting business and is regularly engaged by councils, businesses and submitters to provide expert advice.

John holds an MSc degree (1991) from the University of Canterbury. He has undertaken numerous assessments of dust, odour, chemical and combustion source discharges. He has provided technical evidence on the effects of discharges to air relating to various appeals to the Environment Court. John’s work has also included significant technical input to Regional Air Plans and to guidance documents published by councils and central government agencies.

John is also an experienced hearings commissioner, having sat on more than 90 hearings for resource consent applications and plan changes over the past 20 years. Many of these hearings have been for significant applications that involved a range of issues beyond air quality impacts. John is certified to act as a chairperson and has chaired numerous hearings.

Register of interests

The register records all relevant panel members' interests and is updated, when necessary, throughout the consenting process.