By Pattrick Smellie
July 24 (BusinessDesk) - A sweeping review of the Resource Management Act opens the way to splitting the law relating to
environmental protection and urban development back into two separate pieces of legislation as Environment Minister
David Parker concedes the 28-year-old law needs a total overhaul.
“It is unacceptable for this cornerstone law to be underperforming in a country that values protection of the
environment while properly housing its people,” said Parker, who released Cabinet papers showing that "the review is
expected to resolve debate on key issues, including possibly separating statutory provision for land use planning from
environmental protection of air, water, soil and biodiversity.
“While not the sole cause of the housing crisis, planning rules are partly to blame. Environmental outcomes have been
disappointing. Freshwater quality has been going backwards,” said Parker.
The Cabinet paper says "resolving questions of this magnitude will require the review to consider a wide range of
options, including options that depart from the status quo. One such option, in the context of further clarifying Part 2
(purpose and principles) of the RMA, is determining whether Part 2 (or its replacement) sits in the RMA or in a separate
piece of legislation."
Legal and political argument over the exact interpretation of Part 2, which enshrines and seeks to define the RMA's core
concept of "sustainable development", has been at the heart of landmark disputes and court cases about how the RMA
should be interpreted in practice.
The introduction of spatial planning requirements - planning taking into account area-wide requirements - will also be a
key part of any reform. Spatial planning seeks a holistic, inter-generational approach to regional and urban planning
and, critics say, has been a crucial missing element in New Zealand's resource management toolbox.
With the government close to introducing legislation to make smaller-scale tidy-ups to the RMA in coming weeks, Parker
outlined a more fundamental review process than had previously been signalled, on a challengingly short timetable. An
expert advisory group, yet to be appointed, is to make recommendations for reform, with key law changes drafted by
mid-2020. There is no suggestion that resulting law changes could be achieved before the general election scheduled for
November next year.
Chaired by retired Court of Appeal judge Tony Randerson, the group's membership looks likely to include representatives
of the Environmental Defence Society, which has been a thought leader on the RMA, and Infrastructure New Zealand, which
is focused on how to deliver major urban development more efficiently than is possible under current RMA and local
government resource consent processes.
Describing the 1991 RMA as "a major step forward for resource management in New Zealand" at the time, Parker said the
law is now "unnecessarily complex" and had doubled in length owing to constant reform. Further tinkering will not fix it
now, he said.
The review will include the areas where the RMA overlaps with the Land Transport Management Act, Local Government Act,
and the new zero carbon legislation, which is currently being considered by a select committee.
A Cabinet paper released today describes "poor alignment of land use and infrastructure plans, processes (including
public participation) and funding across the RMA, LGA and LTMA. It also took over two decades for the courts to settle
how and when the Act’s purpose (section 5) is to be applied,"
The review will draw on a vast range of RMA reviews published in recent years, including three Productivity Commission
reports since 2013 on land use, urban development and local government regulation. Parker also cited a reform project
initiated by the Environmental Defence Society which had input from Infrastructure NZ, the Property Council and the
Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) that had "highlighted the need for change and how to address it."
“We need to create a system that better enables economic growth within environmental limits and which aligns the economy
with the environment," said Parker, who said the review will take care "not to unnecessarily discard those legal
precedents" that had clarified crucial elements of Part 2 of the RMA..
"Meanwhile, the government will press ahead with work to improve freshwater quality and urban development, protect
highly productive land and indigenous biodiversity, and reduce waste, because these are urgent and cannot wait for the
comprehensive reform plan," he said.
(BusinessDesk)
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