Eloise Gibson: Rushed hearings frustrate fired up public

Two days is not long to discuss a major law change.

To Aucklanders already nervous about losing grassroots democracy to the proposed Super City, it seemed positively hasty.

Residents of the big city were given last Tuesday and Wednesday to tell the local government and environment committee what they thought about the Resource Management Act (Simplifying and Streamlining) Bill - the biggest change to environmental law in 18 years.

Perhaps the select committee didn't realise so many people would be interested. But it turns out that Aucklanders are incredibly keen on their natural environment.

Chairman Chris Auchinvole had to shorten speaking times and shoe-horn multiple people into single slots to get everyone through in two marathon 12-hour sittings.

He pronounced changes to tree protection, a major bugbear for Auckland, "thoroughly canvassed" by lunchtime of the first day, and asked people to say something new about trees or not mention it at all.

At times, community group leaders could be heard muttering they wouldn't have bothered coming had they known their promised 15-minute time slot would be cut down to five.

With more than 100 people wanting to raise an equally large number of issues with MPs, it was not surprising some walked away disappointed.

One environment group leader declared the process "hopeless" after the talk he spent weeks preparing was glossed over in minutes.

Auckland City Council - which supports most of the bill - was rewarded for its snappy presentation with warm thanks from the chair.

Almost every submitter agreed it was time for Geoffrey Palmer's 1991 act to have a revamp.

But many went on to say that efforts to streamline court processes would cut them out of important decisions.

The RMA has a strong focus on community participation which will be difficult to keep while speeding building and planning decisions along.

Labour has already signalled that community involvement is its biggest concern about the bill. True to her word, Labour's Nanaia Mahuta asked each community group that appeared whether fee rises and restrictions on court appeals would make it harder to fight bad developments.

Other MPs gave hints about the debate they might have when they report back to Parliament on June 19.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman asked how much changes that would be required to District and Regional Plans would cost - an issue that was also raised by councils.

National's Nikki Kaye and Louise Upston focused their questions on how much the bill would speed up council processing times - the whole point of the exercise for National.

In the end, the hurried hearings did nothing to comfort those who feel the complicated bill is being rushed.

But it was obvious the MPs were listening. To whom will become clear when they report back to Parliament on June 19.