Jeffrey McNeill: Why NZ needs to decide what it wants from local government...

Basic service provider or mini democracy? Why NZ needs to decide what it wants from local government

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s recent challenge to local government “to rein in the fantasies and to get back to delivering the basics brilliantly” was unsurprising, given his government’s focus on fiscal restraint.

It was in keeping with his announcement that councils’ legislative purpose of delivering their communities’ economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing are to be removed from the Local Government Act.

Jeffrey McNeill: Resource management is always political

Resource management is always political – the Fast-track Approvals Bill is just honest about it

The government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill has been widely criticised for potentially handing too much power to three cabinet ministers, and raising the risk of conflicts of interest and political interference in environmental management.

Ironically, the bill also helps demonstrate why the original Resource Management Act (RMA) was always doomed to fail – and what its replacement will have to get right.

Jeffrey McNeill: The RMA is dead, long live the RMA

Why NZ’s resource laws won’t change overnight after this election

RMA – three letters that have struck fear into a generation of farmers, developers, politicians and anyone building a house. Or so legend would have it.

Whatever its original goal of promoting sustainable management of natural and physical resources, the Resource Management Act (RMA) has long been dogged by claims of unnecessary and inefficient rules that strangle innovation and progress.