Info: Fast-track team offline 25 December 2025 to 4 January 2026
The contact centre closes at midday on 24 December. The application portal and this website remain available throughout the break.
On 17 December 2025, the panel convener appointed the expert panel. The panel consists of:
Honourable Raynor Asher KC (Chairperson)
Raynor Asher graduated BA, LLB (Hons) from the Auckland Law School in 1972. He was a Senior Scholar in Law. He was also the New Zealand Harkness Fellow to the United States in 1973-74 and graduated with a Master of Laws from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1974.
Raynor was a partner at Kensington Haynes & White (later Kensington Swan and now Dentons) from 1976-86, and in 1986 commenced practice as a barrister sole. In 1992 he was appointed as Queen's Counsel.
From 1996-98 he was President of the New Zealand Bar Association, and then President of the Auckland District Law Society between 2002 and 2003. He was Vice President of the New Zealand Law Society from 2003-05.
He was appointed to the High Court Bench in 2005 and to the Court of Appeal in 2016. He has been President of the Legal Research Foundation, Chair of the Rules Committee and Chair of the Media and Courts Committee. He retired in March 2019, and resumed practice at the Bar as an arbitrator and mediator.
He has been Chair of the New Zealand Media Council since 2019, and is a member of the Courts of Appeal of Vanuatu, Cook Islands, and Samoa.
Karen Coutts
Karen Coutts, Ngāi Tahu me Te Aitanga a Mahaki, is an experienced public servant having worked across health and then economic development and holds a Masters in Public Policy. She is now a director and consultant in the social and environmental sectors and has directorships across public and not-for-profit entities. Karen brings analysis grounded in a Māori worldview where cultural, social and environmental factors are to be equally balanced in order to achieve long-term fiscal sustainability. Karen previously served on Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and is actively connected to Waihao, Moeraki and Awarua rūnanga. She has been a previous director on a local lines transmission company in South Canterbury.
Mark St.Clair
Mark is a sole practitioner planner, principally undertaking commissioner roles with an additional focus on resource management advice for a small number of clients.
Prior to this Mark was a Principal and Co-Director of Hill Young Cooper Ltd, a strategic resource management and environmental policy and planning consultancy from 2001 until June 2022. Before this Mark was a Senior Planning Consultant at GHD (formerly Manukau Consultants Ltd), a planning and engineering consultancy operating throughout New Zealand, Australia, and numerous other countries (1997–2000). Before joining Manukau Consultants Ltd, Mark was in the Environmental Policy team at Manukau City Council in both policy development and monitoring roles. Mark was also an assistant policy analyst at the Ministry for the Environment (1992–1993) working in the Resource Management Act area. From 1980–1985 he held the position of Planning Assistant at the then Lower Hutt City Council.
Mark has more than 35 years’ experience in public policy development, environmental and resource management assessment, environmental management systems, monitoring and auditing, and project management in New Zealand.
Mark is a Member of the New Zealand Planning Institute and the Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand. In addition, Mark is a certified hearing commissioner with chair endorsement and a development contributions commissioner. These roles have included sitting as chair as well as a panel member.
Mark is the recipient of the New Zealand Planning Institute’s Distinguished Service Award for contribution to the field of planning and to the affairs of the Institute (2018).
Matt Baber
Matt brings over 25 years of national and international experience as an ecologist, spanning academia, local government, and consultancy.
A certified RMA hearings panel commissioner since 2018, he has acted as lead ecologist or lead peer-review ecologist on plan changes, resource consents, and fast-track applications for applicants, regulators, and submitters alike. His work covers a wide range of sectors, including infrastructure, mining, renewable energy, and land development.
Matt specialises in Assessments of Ecological Effects and the development and implementation of Ecological Management Plans, including biodiversity offsetting and compensation and outcome monitoring.
He is the Director and founder of Alliance Ecology Ltd (established in 2019). Prior to this, he held senior leadership roles at Tonkin & Taylor Ltd between 2011 and 2019, including Group Manager, Technical Director, and Project Director.
Stephen Brown
Stephen has practised as a landscape architect for 44 years. During that period, he has specialised in landscape assessment and planning, and has been involved in projects ranging from the evaluation of the Channel Tunnel Rail options in the UK, to the Waterview Connection Project in Auckland, and current proposals for a cable car system in Queenstown. He has had long-standing involvement with the development of Northport at Marsden Point, and he has assessed the effects of sixteen wind farm projects, including three in Australia. Over the last three years, he has assisted Auckland Council with Plan Changes 78 and 120, which address residential intensification across the City’s metropolitan area. Other projects Stephen has been involved with include:
Port of Tauranga Berthage Expansion (2019-25)
Te Rere Hau Wind Farm Repowering and Aokautere Extension Projects (2018-2025)
Kennedy Point Marina Application (2017)
East West Link Review (2016/17)
Northern Corridor Improvements Review (2017)
MV Rena Shipwreck Assessment (2015)
Hagley Park Cricket Oval Application (2013)
Waterview Connection Project: SH16 and SH20 (2009 -2012)
Eden Park Rugby World Cup 2011 (2006 - 10)
Long Bay Structure Planning (1998-2005)
Sky Tower Assessment (1991)
Development of Concepts for the Viaduct Basin, and input to its special zone (1989-1994)
Site Selection Studies for P.W.R. Stations at Trawsfynydd and Wylfa - North Wales (1984-6)
Channel Tunnel Railway Connections Study (1986)
Stephen has participated in strategic landscape and natural character assessments for a range of territorial authorities, including the Far North, Whangarei, Otorohanga and Wairoa Districts, the Auckland and Waikato Regional Councils, and the combined (regional and district) councils of the West Coast of the South Island. He has appeared in the Environment Court on a regular basis since 1989.
Register of interests
The register records all relevant panel members' interests. It is updated, when necessary, throughout the consenting process.