RMA reform bill delayed two months as select committee seeks extension

More than 1000 substantive submissions and a range of knotty problems thrown up during public hearings have prompted a two-month delay in the report back to Parliament from the local government and environment select committee on reforms to the Resource Management Act.

The committee was due to report back on the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill, containing reforms to the RMA and several other pieces of law relating to environmental management, on July 3 but has now been granted until September 6 to reach conclusions on a bill that numerous submitters have found fault with.

Committee chairman Scott Simpson told BusinessDesk it was "premature" to discuss what changes might be made to the bill and stressed that the two-month delay would have little impact on the parliamentary sitting time available to get the bill through the House before the end of this calendar year.

Officials were now preparing a "high-level issues paper" to help the committee deliberate on a range of major issues identified in submissions, including: how to ensure greater use of 'collaborative processes' doesn't become a new source of resource consent delay; the right of appeal to the Environment Court; the extension of ministerial powers to over-ride local government; and whether there is a case for a more robust process for resource consent hearings that might reduce the tendency for lengthy appeals.

Soundings in the Beehive suggest Environment Minister Nick Smith is aware the RLA Bill, introduced last November, has drafting deficiencies and will need work while the government is understood to be unmoved by objections to the iwi participation elements of the bill, which have so far sparked little political backlash.

RMA reform has proven fraught since the government pushed through a range of relatively uncontroversial reforms in its first term. Since then, attempts to reform two of the RMA's three "purpose" clauses have seen considerable political capital expended without success.

The  bill introduced by Dr Smith last November involved major compromises and politically contentious concessions to the Maori Party, which required enhanced iwi participation in environmental decision-making in return for supporting a bill that National's other two parliamentary support partners, Act and United Future, oppose, albeit for different reasons.

The New Zealand First party sees political advantage in highlighting the iwi participation proposals to regional and rural audiences and has taken the unusual step of seeking time to make submissions as a political party to the select committee. The party leader, Winston Peters, announced at the beginning of select committee hearings that he would attend in place of deputy Ron Mark where appropriate. So far, he has attended committee hearings only once, on the opening day for submissions.

(BusinessDesk)