Government gets reality-check on RMA reforms

A Parliamentary select committee has listened to commonsense and rejected some of the Government’s attempts to weaken New Zealand’s environmental protection laws.

Today the report of the Local Government and Environmental Committee on the Resource Management Act (Streamlining and Simplifying) Amendment Bill was released, recommending “a large number of changes to the bill, some of them major…” (p2).

“The Green Party is pleased that the some of the worst threats to our community and environment have been removed from the proposed law changes, but further improvements are still needed,” said Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman.

“Many proposed changes that would have prevented communities and environmental protection groups from having a say have been significantly improved,” said Dr Norman.

“Improvements to the bill can be firmly attributed to the hard work of the more than a thousand individuals and organisations who gave persuasive evidence to the committee.

“The Greens are proud to have worked hard in the committee for improvements, but we were only able to do this because of the powerful public participation.”

840 unique submissions (plus many form submissions) were received on the bill – the most submissions since the Foreshore and Seabed Bill in 2004.

A proposal to remove the right to appeal on plans has been dropped. “This is great news - we vigorously opposed this attack on fundamental justice rights,” said Dr Norman.

“The committee’s recommendations are a timely reality-check for this Government. Attacking the public’s right to participate and weakening protection for the environment is the wrong way to go.”

A World Bank report ranks New Zealand 2nd out of 181 countries for ease of doing business; while last month’s Statistics NZ report showed a worsening of biodiversity, pollution and water quality. Dr Norman said, “Our laws are already too weak to protect the environment.”

“Despite improvements to the bill, it still contains changes that weaken protection of our biggest economic asset – the environment. We cannot vote for a bill that does that,” said Dr Norman.

References:
The Green Party minority report: http://www.greens.org.nz/node/21676
The Committee’s full report: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2009/0018/latest/096be8ed80433d20.pdf
World Bank report: http://www.doingbusiness.org/Documents/CountryProfiles/NZL.pdf
Statistics NZ report: http://www.stats.govt.nz/reports/key-findings/progress-towards-sustainable-development.aspx