Court fee increase another blow for environmental care
Forest and Bird is warning that Environment Court fee increases are another blow to environmental protection in New
Zealand.
"We've seen a few blows to environmental protection lately. Last year's changes to the Resource Management Act made it
easier to exclude public interest groups from seeking to reduce the effects of environmentally damaging activities. More
recently, some business leaders and politicians have called for the Resource Management Act to be gutted," Forest and
Bird's Senior Reseacher Barry Weeber said.
Now the Government plans to make it more expensive for ordinary people to get involved in decisions that affect the
environment. Organisations like Forest and Bird will still be able to afford to take part in Court proceedings, but
ordinary New Zealanders will find it harder," he said.
"The Resource Management Act was meant to be a 'people's Act'. Its processes were set up to allow ordinary people a say
about the activities that impact on them and their environment. It was meant to reflect the desire of New Zealanders to
maintain our environment and quality of life," he said.
"The recent Growth and Innovation Board survey showed that New Zealanders don't want economic growth to undermine the
environment or their quality of life. It's time business leaders and politicians took note and started to defend the
Resource Management Act instead of griping," he said.
"Steps to undermine the Resource Management Act undermine the basis of New Zealand's economy - the environment. Without
clean air and water, beautiful landscapes and a genuine reputation for a healthy environment, our clean green reputation
will go - and with it a corner stone of our economy," he said.