Travel and Learning Award for Marie Doole

Supporting Marie Doole to to travel domestically in New Zealand and to Australia to undertake a research study tour to support the advancement of New Zealand’s legal literature and practical guidance on the management of the risk of regulatory capture in environmental regulatory systems.

Borrin Foundation Travel and Learning Award

Marie’s plan

Regulatory capture refers to where special interests warp the activities of regulatory agencies, such that they more commonly act in the interests of the regulated community compared with upholding the public interest outcomes the statute is designed to achieve. The impact of regulatory capture in environmental law is particularly pronounced. The purpose of this inquiry is to identify the drivers and impacts of regulatory capture by vested interests in environmental legal systems to help devise practical and political solutions to its prevalence. The context for the analysis is New Zealand and Australia.

The Borrin Travel and Learning Award would by funding travel and conference attendance, enable a research study tour to support the advancement of New Zealand’s relatively limited legal literature and practical guidance in this space.  The travel would include parts of New Zealand and eastern Australia and the attendance at the 2024 Global Summit on Implementing and Enforcing Environmental Law (Nov 6-8) in Brisbane, Queensland. Meeting regulators and other stakeholders and conducting interviews and analysis will provide a Trans-Tasman picture and identify any distinguishing elements between jurisdictions. Attendance at the conference will provide a unique opportunity to network with international colleagues, share learnings, make new connections.

About Marie

Marie is an independent researcher and implementation expert, specialising in understanding the systems we rely on to safeguard the environment, and evaluating their effectiveness. Marie holds a Bachelor of Science, a Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Management, a Masters in Environmental Legal Studies (all from the University of Auckland) and a PhD from the University of Waikato. Throughout a wide-ranging career in central and local government, the NGO sector and academia, Marie has led ground-breaking research into a range of topics including environmental compliance, such as ‘Last Line of Defence’ the first critical assessment of environmental enforcement in Aotearoa with the Environmental Defence Society. Her PhD focused on a critical analysis of compliance rates with early biodiversity offset agreements under the Resource Management Act 1991. In her time at the Ministry for the Environment, Marie led the development of the compliance regime in the Natural and Built Environment Act 2023, working to modernise our system for holding resource users to account. Marie is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and the Director of Mātaki Environmental, a boutique consulting practice based in the Wairarapa.

Grant Amount

$8,580 in 2024 to support travel

“Thanks to the Borrin Foundation, I’ll be exploring the role of regulatory capture in undermining effectiveness of environmental law. I look forward to applying that knowledge to supporting policy agencies and regulators to achieve better outcomes for our natural heritage.”

– Marie Doole