The reform of Aotearoa New Zealand’s resource management system reached a significant milestone with new legislation introduced to Parliament yesterday. A set of links to information and headlines on this follow.
- Natural and Built Environmental Bill – link here.
- Spatial Planning Bill – link here.
- Ministry for the Environment – see Resource management reform legislation introduced to Parliament includes links to:
Also:
- Hon Dr Megan Woods – RMA reforms aim to make housing and urban system simpler, faster, cheaper
- NZ Planning Institute – Government Releases Spatial Planning and Natural and Built Environments Bills
- Science Media Centre – RMA Reforms Revealed – Expert Reaction
- Green Party – Nature missing in RMA Reform
- Environmental Defence Society – Good To See Legislation Replacing The RMA, But Improvements Needed To Protect The Environment
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Summary of immediate reaction on The Spinoff:
National, Act and the Greens have all criticised the government’s newly announced overhaul of the resource management system.
Introduced to parliament today, the government is moving forward with a pair of bills that it says will better protect the environment, cut red tape, lower costs and shorten wait times for key infrastructure projects.
But while all political parties agree there is a need for change, the government’s plans haven’t come in for much support from within parliament.
Act’s David Seymour said the new legislation won’t fix a thing. “Like Labour’s healthcare, polytechnic, and three waters reforms, the reforms are more focused on the administrative structure for government employees than the outcome for people,” he said. “Taking 100 plans down to 15 sounds great, but the content of these plans will be little changed because we are saying a change in administration rather than a change of principle.”
According to National’s Chris Bishop, the new legislation could be even worse than what we currently have now. He said that while National supported reform of the RMA, the party was “deeply sceptical” about whether the proposed changes will make it easier to get things done. “More centralisation, bureaucracy and control is not the answer.”
Though less critical overall, the Green Party also said the announced overhaul “falls short of what is required”. Eugenie Sage, the party’s environmental spokesperson, said the government has missed a “crucial opportunity” to put the climate at the heart of resource consenting.
“Instead of coming up with new laws that put nature and the climate at the heart of our planning and resource management system, the government seems to have bought into the outdated idea that there is a trade-off between quality infrastructure and good environmental outcomes. This just isn’t true,” said Sage.
The government aims to pass the new laws before the next election.
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In the headlines:
- TVNZ: Govt vows cheaper, faster resource consents in ‘broken’ RMA overhaul
- RNZ: RMA replacements find few fans on cross-benches
- RNZ – Checkpoint: RMA one step closer to being scrapped, replaced
- Stuff: Industry supportive of RMA reforms but concerns remain plus RMA reforms need to work for regions, Canterbury leaders say
- NZ Herald: Planning and consenting bonfire as David Parker’s RMA reform merges 100 plans into 15, saving $150m a year
- NZ Herald (paywall): Resource Management Act reform reaction: what experts think
- Newsroom (paywall): The missing pieces of the RMA reform puzzle
- Newshub: Planner sceptical about Government’s proposed RMA reform
- NewstalkZB: Civil Contractors NZ: Cost reductions expected from RMA reforms don’t go far enough
- Otago Daily Times (paywall): Doubts held over RMA reforms
