Environment Minister David Parker Photo / Mark Mitchell
Environment Minister David Parker Photo / Mark Mitchell
Environment Minister David Parker has reached an Everest: passing two pieces of legislation that will repeal and replace the Resource Management Act.
It is the culmination of a process that began in 2019 with a review of the RMA, which proposed two main bills to replace it. The Government has spent most of this term refining the suggestions and passing the two bills.
The two bills, the Natural and Built Environments Bill (NBA, when it becomes law), and the Spatial Planning Bill (SPA) had their third readings in Parliament on Wednesday and will shortly receive the royal assent.
But the bills are hotly contested. National says it will repeal both by Christmas if it forms a government after the October election.
Parker praised the simplification offered by the new resource management system.
“At the moment, there are over 100 RMA plans, those are cut down to 16 better plans that will be structured in a similar way and therefore are easier to follow, are made faster and result in more permitted activities, lower land prices, lower consenting costs and better environmental outcomes,” Parker said.
Parker said it will “save homeowners, infrastructure providers, a lot of money - hundreds of millions of dollars have been here”.
The new system does away with more than 100 plans under the current system, replacing them with just 16, which are put together at a regional level with representatives from councils and mana whenua.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon and RMA reform spokesman Chris Bishop. Photo / Dean Purcell.
The NBA comes with a new national planning framework to provide consistent policy, targets and bottom lines across the country. This is meant to make life easier for planners by replacing a bespoke network of bottom lines with a nationally consistent policy.
Sitting alongside the NBA, the SPA will offer a separate strategic framework for environmental management and regional development, looking out 30 to 100 years into the future.
It’ll also help anchor the NBA to other existing laws like the local government and land transport acts.
Regions will be ushered into the new system, with different regions coming into the new system over the course of the next decade. It means that many regions will still be on the old RMA-system for a period of time after the legislation passes.
National’s RMA reform spokesman Chris Bishop said the system repeated the flaws of the old RMA and said it would be gone by Christmas if his party forms a government.
“The Labour Government has spent six years working on RMA reform but has managed to design a complex new regime that will make it even harder to get things done and actually make our planning framework worse than the mess it is now,” he said.
“National will campaign on our own changes to the RMA, some of which we have already announced, including one-year consenting for major infrastructure and renewable energy projects, alongside our Going for Housing Growth plan. If elected, we will legislate for these in our first term.
“We will also begin work on a longer-term programme to repeal and replace the RMA.”
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
