Source: New Zealand Government
Tēnā koutou katoa
It’s a pleasure to speak to you today on how we are tracking with the resource management reforms.
It is timely, given that in last week’s Budget the Government announced significant funding to ensure an efficient transition to the future resource management system.
There is broad consensus that the Resource Management Act, or RMA, has not worked as intended. You will have heard me say before that it takes too long, and costs too much and has not adequately protected the natural environment, nor enabled housing development where needed. It has also stymied growth.
As many of you in civil society rightly saw, there was an urgent need to address these issues and create a system that better protects the environment and provides for development needs.
This morning I’d like to update you on progress. As the Budget funding indicates our focus is shifting from development of legislation to implementation. We are making sure we have the funding needed to implement a system that will work. We want to learn from the lessons of the past to avoid the poor implementation of the RMA which almost guaranteed its failure.
RM reform to date
The Resource Management Act has been a cornerstone piece of legislation in this country for more than 30 years.
Following an in-depth review of resource management system, in December 2020 we announced plans for three new laws to take its place: the Natural and Built Environments Act, the Spatial Planning Act plus the Climate Adaptation Act.
The Spatial Planning Act used to be called the Strategic Planning Act, but we recently renamed it to better capture its function to identify areas of land suitable for development and infrastructure, and those which need to be protected. This will give clearer investment signals to local government, central government (like transport), and the private sector.
Over the last 15 months there has been a highly intensive work programme based on the work and recommendations of the Randerson Review, with significant progress made. The Randerson Review identified similar issues to those found in other reviews of the resource management system including by the Productivity Commission in 2017, the report by Environmental Defence Society, Property Council, Northern EMA and Infrastructure NZ in 2019, Local Government New Zealand and the Waitangi Tribunal.
The Prime Minister’s Statement earlier this year reiterated that completing the resource management reform is a priority for this Government, with the introduction of the Natural and Built Environments Bill and Spatial Planning Bill scheduled for the third quarter of this year and enactment this parliamentary term.
We are on track to make this happen. It has been a huge undertaking.
To give you an idea of the scale of the thing, a Ministerial Oversight Group was convened with delegations from Cabinet to make decisions on the policy. For the last 15 months, 14 Ministers of the Crown have met every few weeks to review advice on multiple policy papers – essentially 17 cabinet papers which contained over 750 policy recommendations. The last of these meetings was in the middle of April. We are now in the process of considering the detailed subsidiary decision making needed for preparing instructions for the Parliamentary Council Office as they draft the legislation.
The Ministerial Oversight Group have been supported by a Strategic Planning Act Reform Board, consisting of chief executives from MfE, Treasury, Housing, Te Arawhiti, Transport and DoC to name a few. They oversee the development of the Spatial Planning Act and the RM reforms.
Every policy paper has been scrutinised and feedback received not just by the Ministry for the Environment, but 17 other Crown agencies.
We have engaged on a regular basis with the Local Government Steering Group, and Māori. These groups have provided advice to both me and the Ministry, tested policy and helped develop our thinking for implementation and transition.
The objectives
The end result will be a resource management system that better protects and restores the natural environment. There will be clear national direction on biophysical environmental limits, targets that must be met and a process to resolve conflicts.
The future system will better enable development through strong national direction – for example on infrastructure and housing – in the National Planning Framework. Regional Spatial Strategies will identify where development is needed and help avoid local conflicts
This will improve system efficiency and effectiveness and reduce the number of resource consents currently required under the RMA.
The National Planning Framework will create a framework for Regional Spatial Strategies which will also be responsible for identifying areas that are at risk of sea level rise and other natural hazards, requiring an appropriate response.
The principles of the Treaty of Waitangi will be given effect to through a stronger Treaty clause. The RMA interfaces with over 70 Treaty settlement arrangements. Some of those treaty settlements already have co-governance arrangements relating to natural resources. The Government is committed to upholding existing arrangements, and marine and coastal area (Takutai Moana) rights, in the future system. These settlements will be honoured in full – which means we will neither derogate from, nor add to existing arrangements.
Model Project
We will be working with several councils across New Zealand to develop the first full Regional Spatial Strategies and Natural and Built Environments Act plans which will serve as a model for subsequent RSSs/plans
As these first plans are developed, we will learn valuable lessons that can be applied to the wider roll out of the system. They will also provide practical templates to be used by other regions, significantly reducing the existing variations between plans.
The joint committees will see multiple communities working together to identify how their region will grow and respond to environmental challenges over the next 30 years.
We hope to identify the first regions we will work with on the model Regional Spatial Strategies and Natural and Built Environments Act plans in the next couple of months.
Shift to implementation – budget funding
Funding an efficient transition to the future system is crucial to deliver prompt timeframes, lower costs and better outcomes for New Zealanders. With the existing RMA no model plan was done and common definitions were not developed. National guidance, other than the Coastal Policy Statement was delayed for decades. Appeals on plans were delayed by many years because the Environment Court was not funded to hear them. The system became mired in delays and uncertainty.
I believe that inadequate funding for implementing the RMA back in 1992 almost guaranteed its failure.
Last week’s Budget provided $179 million over four years, in addition to the funding provided in last year’s Budget, to ensure there are sufficient funds to develop the National Planning Framework, along with the first Regional Spatial Strategies and Natural and Built Environments Act plans.
It also provided funding for a new national Māori entity to enable greater participation by Māori in decision making at a national level, including helping develop the National Planning Framework.
The National Planning Framework
National direction is currently provided by a series of National Policy Statements, National Environmental Standards, National Planning Standards and regulations under section 360 of the Resource Management Act.
In recent years we have been filling in enormous gaps relevant to land supply, protection of elite soils, freshwater quality and biodiversity.
National Direction currently in effect, and that being developed will be transitioned into the NPF. I do not intend to relitigate the policy intnent of this national direction, however some changes may be needed to align it the the NBA and resolve conflicts between instruments. The future resource management system will transition current national direction into the National Planning Framework, providing direction and to the people who develop Regional Spatial Strategies and Natural and Built Environments Act plans.
The Natural and Built Environments Act and the National Planning Framework will together provide for environmental outcomes, set environmental limits, provide guidance on resolving conflicts and provide strategic direction.
To avoid irreversible harm to the environment, this integrated set of regulations will include mandatory environmental limits. These limits will protect ecological integrity and human health, and include limits relating to fresh water, coastal waters, estuaries, air, soil and biodiversity.
The Government has also decided to develop a new piece of national direction on infrastructure to be included in the first iteration of the National Planning Framework. The Infrastructure Commission – Te Waihanga – is working with the Ministry for the Environment on this chapter..
Infrastructure
The inclusion of provisions to enable infrastructure in the National Planning Framework will help accelerate its delivery by giving clear direction to councils, reducing the variation in rules across regions and providing more certainty to infrastructure providers.
A key part of the Infrastructure Chapter will enable the codification of a suite of planning and technical standards for infrastructure. For example the chapter may list standards for erosion and sediment control. Councils will state which standards must be used.
This will build on the work done by the Government on accelerating housing by providing a more effective way to deliver r the infrastructure that supports it.
Accountability
Local authorities’ planning departments are regulatory monopolies and lack incentives to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Elected members of local authorities have said that they have limited accountability over their planning departments.
The increase in costs and timeframes for decisions on consents has been caused in part by the use of RMA mechanisms to request additional information and evidence from applicants and local authorities requesting detailed evidence that can involve significant cost and time to compile.
This increase has diminished the reputation of the RMA and show that past amendments to the RMA, which did not include accountability mechanisms, did not fully address the problems and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of consenting.
The NBA will state that local authorities and joint committees will have a responsibility to ensure that their NBA functions and processes are cost-effective, timely, efficient, and consistent.
I recognise that it is inappropriate for elected councillors to interfere in an individual consent, but they should be responsible for the accountability and control of the overall efficiency and effectiveness of their planning departments.
Workforce
Reform of this scale will have a big impact on those who work in resource management, both in terms of capacity and capability during the transition to the future system, and when the future system becomes business-as-usual.
We have begun work to understand how the reforms will play out for the resource management workforce, both now and into the future.
This work, being conducted by New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, will mean we can put in place an evidence-based programme to improve the capacity and capability in the future system.
Next steps/conclusion
This is immense and important reform. We are taking great strides towards making the future system a reality. The Natural and Built Environments Bill and Spatial Planning Bill legislation are expected to be introduced to Parliament later in 2022.
The Climate Adaptation Act is on a slightly different timetable. I encourage those interested to review the National Adaptation Plan as this contains issues and policy questions that will help support the Bill’s development.
We also need people like you – the experts working every day in this field – to engage in the Select Committee process which will occur shortly after the Natural and Built Environments Bill and Spatial Planning Bill are introduced to Parliament.
We would appreciated your careful submissions on the exposure draft of the Natural and Built Environments Bill.
I look forward to switching focus fully towards the implementation of the future system – and look forward to seeing all the hard work pay off.
ENDS
