Business, farmers back report calling for RMA overhaul

Wednesday, 29 July 2020

Business groups say an RMA overhaul is needed to help pull New Zealand out of a Covid-19 downturn.

Business, infrastructure and farming groups have welcomed a new report suggesting the Resource Management Act be completely overhauled.

The report, New Directions for Resource Management in New Zealand, was commissioned by Environment Minister David Parker and prepared by a panel led by retired Court of Appeal Judge Tony Randerson QC.

The Randerson report recommends repealing the current RMA act and replacing it with separate pieces of legislation: a Natural and Built Environments Act and a Strategic Planning Act.

The biggest single change would be a proposal for each region in the country to put forward a combined development plan, consolidating the patchwork of local plans put up by councils throughout the country.

Environment Minister says a long awaited overhaul of the RMA's planning laws will put new dairy farm conversions off the agenda in some regions. (First published July 25, 2020)

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In the infrastructure industry, Peter Silcock, chief executive of Civil Contractors New Zealand, said there was definitely room for improvement.

‘’I think our members are proud of our work protecting the environment and we’ll continue to do that, but at the same time there’s a lot of expense which is not necessarily being well used at the moment, and time, which costs money as well.’’

Focussing more on regional planning, so projects didn’t face a clash of rules in different locations, also had a lot of merit, he said.

Obtaining building and resource consents has sometimes been a difficult and costly process at times, says BusinessNZ (file photo).

‘’For instance water infrastructure, or transport infrastructure, or communications infrastructure, you can’t actually manage that just to your boundary and then have something completely different on the other side.’’

The Employers and Manufacturers Association embraced the Randerson report, saying that the act was clearly no longer ''fit for purpose''.

'Clearly the RMA is … failing to protect the environment and failing to enable fast enough responses to cope with New Zealand’s rapid growth and infrastructure deficit,' the association's head of advocacy and strategy, Alan McDonald, said.

The EMA is part of a coalition of business and environmental interest groups called Resource Reform New Zealand, which has eagerly awaited the Randerson review.

Other members include Infrastructure New Zealand, the Environmental Defence Society, Property Council New Zealand and Business New Zealand.

The country’s body for planners said there was general consensus that change was needed, especially when it came to things like managed retreats from flood-prone areas.

“National leadership on managed retreat is essential and should not be left to local government to try and resolve,” Karyn Sinclair, chair of the New Zealand Planning Institute, said.

Wetlands and water storage are two areas Federated Farmers say have been impeded by the current RMA.

The institute also strongly supported streamlining and reducing costs for small to medium sized projects.

‘’This will be a refreshing change from current RMA practice, which seems to be slow and expensive for small things and not that effective at resolving big issues either.”

BusinessNZ chief executive Kirk Hope said the 500-page report needed going through in detail but it held some promise for helping improve an at-times ''difficult, costly and uncertain'' consent process.

'Several recommendations in the Randerson report would appear to address these issues, including recommendations for better council plans and simplified urban development rules,'' he said.

Federated Farmers agreed the RMA was ''broken' but it was not sure why the Government was still pushing ahead with changes to the existing act.

'What started off as a relatively simple, one-stop-shop piece of legislation formed 30 years ago to promote sustainable development and environmental protection has been chewed over so much it is no longer recognisable,' the group's resource management spokesperson, Karen Williams, said.

National Party leader Judith Collins talks about her views on the resource management act.

'The RMA has become unwieldy and cripplingly expensive. It creates huge hurdles for development and economic wellbeing, and struggles to provide the environmental outcomes everyone wants, including addressing cumulative effects.''

Water storage, and on the ground work such as restoration and enhancement of wetlands, were just two examples of environmental win/wins that were being impeded by the RMA as it was, she said.

Williams said Federated Farmers’ preference was for the legislation to stay in one statute which stuck with its core principles of balancing economic, cultural, social and environmental outcomes.

The report follows changes this week to increase the density of urban housing and changes to the RMA in May to fast-track infrastructure consents.

Environment Minister David Parker said it would be up to the next government to decide whether to implement the report, wholly or in part.

But he said the current RMA was now double its original size, and had become too costly, and had not adequately protected the environment.

Both natural and built environments were under significant pressure.

‘’Urban areas are struggling to keep pace with population growth and the need for affordable housing. Water quality is deteriorating, biodiversity is diminishing and there is an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate change.’’