Big changes in store for RMA bill

Reform of the Resource Management Act passed another stage yesterday with a parliamentary select committee recommending a large number of changes, some of them major, to the proposed legislation.

Environment Minister Nick Smith said he welcomed the changes and the reform would still cut through red tape without compromising environmental protections.

Dr Smith said some of the significant changes to the original bill included:

Not limiting appeals on plans to points of law.

Strengthening the provisions to ensure resource consents were processed in a timely way.

Limiting rather than removing further rounds of submissions on plan changes to ensure property rights are recognised.

The select committee received 840 unique submissions on the bill, the most since the controversial foreshore and seabed legislation, and heard from 339 of those submitters in 68 hours of public hearings.

The marathon consideration resulted in a reported back bill of 222 pages plus a 61-page summary of the changes.

These included new measures to reduce unreasonable and anti-competitive submissions intended to delay or block a competitor by using the RMA and a rewrite of the process for fast-tracking projects of national significance.

- NZPA