On 6 August 2025, 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.
Nicholas Manukau
Nicholas Manukau has whakapapa connections to iwi in the Auckland and Waikato Regions and is involved in cultural practices on the land, rivers, and ocean.
Nicholas has a background in resource management, land transport and fisheries management and aquaculture. He has worked with the Ministry of Fisheries (Auckland), Waikato Regional Council, Ministry for Primary Industries (Auckland), Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency and the past Electricity Corporation of New Zealand.
He was previously involved in fisheries compliance and implementing the fisheries treaty settlement in Auckland, Waikato, and Hauraki. He also led the completion of the $100 million aquaculture treaty settlement for the entire country on behalf of the Crown in 2010.
Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Diploma of Environmental Management and a Master's degree in Applied Indigenous Knowledge.
Nicholas has been an environmental commissioner for several years. He was on the Board of Inquiry that considered Watercare’s application to take further water from the Waikato River. More recently, he has been on expert panels under the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020. He is an accredited resource management commissioner under the Minister for the Environment’s Making Good Decisions qualification.
Karen Kurzeja
Karyn Kurzeja is a qualified planner and sole Director of Purpose Planning. Karyn has more than 25 years’ experience in the areas of urban and statutory planning; policy making and plan development. She has extensive experience in large scale residential and rural subdivision projects; medium density housing developments, greenfield growth projects and plan change rezoning applications.
Karyn is an experienced Hearings Commissioner and is regularly appointed to chair both resource consent and plan change hearings for Auckland Council. She also provides independent hearing commissioner services to Tauranga City Council and Hamilton City Council. Under the COVID-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020, Karyn was appointed to various roles including as a Panel member, independent facilitator for expert conferencing, expert planner and conditions writer across several Fast-track applications.
Karyn is a full member of the NZ Planning Institute and a member of the Resource Management Law Association. Karyn has been an accredited commissioner under the Ministry for the Environment's Making Good Decisions Programme for over 10 years and has held Chairing endorsement since 2020.
Register of Interests
The register records all relevant panel members' interests and is updated, when necessary, throughout the consenting process.