Expert Panel

On 26 January 2026, the panel convener appointed the expert panel. The panel consists of:

Helen Atkins (Chairperson)

Helen Atkins has been an experienced environmental, public law and local government lawyer for many years. She has been an accredited commissioner (with the chair endorsement) under the Making Good Decisions Programme administered by the Ministry for the Environment for over 10 years. In that capacity Helen has chaired many high-profile cases.

Helen is an Associate Convener under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2025 and has chaired one of the first applications determined under that Act.

Helen has worked in both the public and private sectors throughout her career and has been involved in many large projects involving plan changes, resource consenting and notices of requirement. As a public lawyer Helen has had both advising and decision-making experience under other environmental legislation.

Helen is an associate member of the New Zealand Planning Institute and runs workshops and webinars for them. She is also a member of the Resource Management Law Association and served on the Executive of the National Committee for a number of years. She is a regular contributor to the Water New Zealand Journal, Water.

In addition to her advisory and legal work, Helen has also served on many governance boards in both the private and public sectors, including as chair.

Ray O’Callaghan

Ray is a Chartered Professional Engineer with over 35 years of experience as a consultant engineer. He has been involved with a broad range of projects including land development, three waters, earthworks, coastal engineering, irrigation, and landfills and has provided expertise for the RMA approval aspects of these projects. Ray is a certified independent RMA Commissioner, a Fellow of Engineering New Zealand and a Life Member of ACENZ.

Ray has led several large projects through their RMA approvals process for both private and local authority clients, including plan changes, and has been an expert witness for numerous planning hearings and several Environment Court hearings. Ray has also been an expert witness for several legal cases before the District and High Court, many of which have been settled at mediation. As a certified Independent RMA Commissioner, Ray has sat on a number of panels involving a range of proposed activities, usually where engineering technical matters have been complex. These have included NOR applications, large scale irrigation, discharge and/or coastal activities and complex land development proposals.

Mark Ashby

Mark is a consultant planner with over 35 years of experience in consulting, and in local, regional and central government. He is a Technical Director in a consultancy company and, among other roles, is the company's national portfolio lead for onshore Renewable Energy. In 2025 he received a Distinguished Service Award from the NZ Planning Institute.

Mark’s professional career has been based in the Wellington region, while working on projects around NZ and overseas, including in Australia and Brunei. He is an accredited and experienced Hearing Commissioner/Chair, sitting on hearing panels since 2012 with regard to regional and district consent issues. Mark's consulting experience also covers inputs on a range of major consent projects such as wind and solar farms, regional prisons, the Transmission Gully motorway, landfills, and the MV Rena wreck. He is familiar with Wellington Airport through acting on behalf of Wellington City Council in responding to the Airport's notices of requirement for designation.

Register of interests

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