Govt to repeal ‘perverse’ RMA changes
WELLINGTON: The Government will repeal ‘‘perverse’’ changes to the Resource Management Act adopted under the previous government.
Environment Minister David Parker announced yesterday a twostage process — expected to start next year — to improve the legislation.
‘‘The Resource Management Act is underperforming in some critical areas and needs fixing,’’ Mr Parker said.
The RMA is New Zealand’s main piece of legislation that sets out how the environment should be managed.
Under the previous Nationalled government, reforming the Act, first passed in 1991, was a sticking point, as National was not able to reach a consensus with its coalition partners, Act NZ, United
Future and the Maori Party, regarding the changes it wanted to make.
Mr Parker yesterday blamed the previous government for making a mess of the legislation.
‘‘The changes under the previous government caused perverse outcomes that gave applicants an incentive to intentionally make their applications noncompliant to preserve public participation and appeal rights,’’ Mr Parker said.
National environment spokesman Scott Simpson said some of the recent changes were starting to have a positive impact, resulting in a smoother consenting process with less cost.
‘‘The changes the minister is proposing are just mere tinkering. What is really needed is a wholesale reform of the RMA.’’
He said reform of the RMA was critical to increasing housing supply, which in turn would make housing more affordable.
‘‘We know planning and consenting for land use is important and that it still takes too long to free up land.’’
Mr Parker said the changes made last year by the previous government were ‘‘unprincipled and impractical’’. Those issues would be fixed. ‘‘[The changes] will repeal the broad regulationmaking power passed last year, which enabled the minister for the environment to override councils.’’
Other changes, including the ability to upgrade groups of consents in line with updated standards, which would help speed the cleaning up of New Zealand rivers, have also been mooted.
A Bill addressing changes that could be made to the Act straight away would be introduced to Parliament early next year, Mr Parker said.
It would address particular issues with resource consenting, and monitoring and enforcement processes in the RMA. — NZME