'Mandate' for change

William Rolleston.
William Rolleston.
Federated Farmers says the Government has a mandate for reforms to the Resource Management Act which could see New Zealand become a ''primary superpower''.

Prime Minister John Key has made no secret reforms to the RMA and employment law were priorities for his incoming government.

President William Rolleston said vital reforms to the RMA had stalled for want of support from National's partners in the last Parliament.

''National put its plans to reform the RMA to the electorate and the electorate have comprehensively responded yes. There is no ambiguity or room for conjecture in this.''

With major water reforms under way through the National Policy Statement on Freshwater, there were three years for those reforms to bear fruit, he said.

The electorate also sent a message to political parties New Zealand's best response to global climate change was to lead the world on carbon efficiency instead of just blindly slashing production.

''Agriculture and environment were political footballs this election and it is clear the electorate did not buy the line farmers are shirking their environmental responsibilities. Political parties must reassess policies that clearly do not chime with the electorate,'' Dr Rolleston said.

The Property Council urged the newly-elected National-led Government to make RMA reforms a priority.

The reforms must provide provisions to ensure the effective functioning of the ''built environment'', including the availability of land for urban expansion and development, were appropriately factored into decision-making processes, chief executive Connal Townsend said.

Other critical changes should comprise the efficient provision of infrastructure and the risk and impacts of natural hazards.

''These will help ensure a more integrated approach is applied to decision-making by taking into account all the relevant issues at hand.''

The RMA reforms needed to provide greater certainty and consistency across the country, he said.

National Party election policy said there was widespread agreement the system which had developed over the past 22 years was not serving New Zealand well.

Mr Key said the reforms were focused on taking away much of the uncertainty, time and cost from the RMA and creating a system to enable growth while ensuring important environmental standards were maintained.

Among the policy changes advocated by National were:

• Requiring more upfront, clear decisions to be made in plans to reduce the need for consent-by-consent planning.

• Introduce a national planning template to standardise planning documents.

• Require a single resource management plan per district.

• Require compulsory pre-hearing mediation to more quickly resolve environment court hearings.

• Improve Maori participation.

National would also have a greater emphasis on plan-making by not requiring consents where an activity had already been allowed through the planning process. Councils would be required to publish fixed fees for many consents and report on consents charges and costs.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei said National's planned changes to the RMA would remove vital legal protections for the environment and change the Act's sustainable management purpose to put the interest of business ahead of the environment.

dene.mackenzie@odt.co.nz

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