KEY POINTS:
Business has welcomed the overhaul of the Resource Management Act as an important first step in stripping back the tangle of red tape and reducing planning costs that run into tens of millions of dollars for some projects.
The changes will be the biggest since the law was introduced 18 years ago.
Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly said the changes were in line with what the organisation had been asking of the Government for some time.
Even in times when credit was easy he had noticed a number of investors being put off a project because of the difficulty posed by the RMA and the uncertainty that caused.
"The fact that they are trying to add more certainty is positive. Looking on the face of it, the proposals seem to be sensible. But we have still got to go through the select committee stage - the devil here will be in the detail."
O'Reilly said that in the tighter credit market the country needed to smooth the path for more foreign investment and make it easier for the Government to push forward infrastructure projects to help the economy.
"If they are going to be aggressive about planning legislation, now is the time."
Council for Infrastructure Development chief executive Stephen Selwood said the changes were important but more were needed.
Projects that could qualify as being of national importance should include state highway improvements, transmission grid building and power stations of 100MW or more.
However, there was a need to follow the New South Wales model and introduce a one-stop-shop approach to all laws affecting development. Other laws that affected big developments included the Historic Places Act, the Reserves Act, the Local Government Act, the Public Works Act, and the Foreshore and Seabed Act.
"Development of a single consenting process, incorporating one dominant set of provisions governing strategic infrastructure, would be a logical next step to streamline the consent process, remove duplicity, and provide transparency for all parties." Selwood said simplification of the regulatory and legislative "quagmire" needed to be a priority for Regulatory Reform Minister Rodney Hide, the new Environmental Protection Agency and the new infrastructure unit advising the Minister for Infrastructure.
"These are exactly the sort of signals that operators are looking for. It now has to be matched with Government announcement of projects it wants to bring forward and they have to be met by the funding."
Tourism Industry Association chief executive Tim Cossar said changes must be carefully considered to ensure the act's core sustainability principles were not eroded.
"On the one hand it is critical that we protect and enhance our environment and deliver New Zealand's 100 per cent pure promise; on the other, it is crucial that our members operate within a healthy business-friendly environment."
John Hassan, a partner at Chapman Tripp, said that even given the complexity of the changes, the September deadline was still achievable.
The area that could be most complex related to using planning rules to harm competitors.
Under planned changes, an appeal brought, financed or encouraged by trade competition motives could face full damage payments from the applicants.
It is estimated that 20 per cent of all objections had some trade-related aspect and over time these caused millions of dollars of costs and years of delays with no relation to the environment.
A number of power projects have run into planning obstacles which have taken years and in the case of Transpower's North Island pylon project cost tens of millions of dollars.
Connal Townsend, chief executive of the Property Council, said that Building Act, Building Code and RMA reform were long overdue.
"This begins with moving the burden of risk and innovation from local government to the building industry and with the establishment of an environmental protection agency."
- Grant Bradley, Anne Gibson
