Source: Greenpeace
Greenpeace says the Coalition Government has committed one of its most destructive acts against nature this term, pushing through legislation replacing the Resource Management Act (RMA) last night, in the final sitting days of Parliament.
For more than three decades, the RMA has been New Zealand’s overarching legal framework governing how land, water, air and other natural resources are used and protected. It has now been replaced by the Natural Environment Act and the Planning Act.
Greenpeace spokesperson Gen Toop says the significance of what the Coalition Government has just done cannot be overstated.
“The RMA was New Zealand’s main environmental law. It was designed to protect our air and water from contamination, and our forests, wildlife and coastlines from degradation. That protection has just been well and truly ripped to shreds.
“These new laws allow companies to cause more pollution, contamination and environmental degradation in Aotearoa. If these laws are not repealed by the next Government, we will be living with the environmental damage they enable long into the future.”
Created in 1991, the RMA brought previously separate laws protecting air, water, soil and the environment into one integrated system. The 1991 reforms began under Labour but the RMA was ultimately passed into law by the incoming National Government.
“Until today, there had been an enduring recognition across political lines that New Zealand needed a strong, overarching environmental law to put boundaries around pollution and degradation. What happened today is a profound departure from that consensus,” says Toop.
“On behalf of polluting industries, after private backroom meetings with corporate lobbyists, the Coalition Government has completed a hostile takeover of our cornerstone environmental law.
“They have replaced it with a system designed to protect corporate profits rather than protect the environment. They have even reversed the well-established polluter-pays principle. The public will now end up paying polluters instead.”
The new laws introduce a new scheme in which ratepayers could be forced to pay companies “compensation” for environmental protection rules. The Government’s own report has estimated this could cost councils up to $2 billion.
Greenpeace says they also render environmental limits legally meaningless, scrap existing iwi agreements, stop councils from introducing stronger local protections like bans on destructive fishing practices, restrict public participation and Māori involvement in environmental decision-making, and weaken protections for native wildlife.
“Aotearoa already has polluted rivers, contaminated drinking water, disappearing wildlife and a worsening climate crisis. We desperately needed stronger environmental protection. Instead, this Government has ripped the country’s cornerstone environmental law apart,” says Toop.
“These new laws will make it easier for data centres, mines, feedlots, fish farms and other commercial activities to get consent, even where environmental impacts would be devastating. They also ban local councils from introducing desperately needed marine protections.”
“After the election, these laws must be repealed as a matter of urgency, before they are enacted on the ground and lead to irreversible environmental damage.”