NZCPR Newsletter: The RMA Reforms

On its introduction in the early nineties, the Resource Management Act was hailed as groundbreaking. It was “enabling” legislation – a bold departure from the rigid, prescriptive Town and Country Planning Act that had governed land use for decades.

Instead of councils dictating what people could and could not do with their property, the new law was focussed on managing the environmental effects of a project.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 20/9/24

Newsroom makes Goldsmith’s day by labelling him “Nats’ hard-ass golden boy” – will Bishop now become RMA reform bulldozer?

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Simon Court will be hoping to enhance their reputations as “getting things done” fellows just as Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has done.

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 4/9/24

Need for change in the grocery sector attracts greater attention than govt’s modest spending on gender equality in horticulture

Good grief! Is this the work of National Party Minister of the Crown?

The press statement language has the whiff of the stuff produced by the social engineers in the previous government:

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 17/8/23

Increased taxes are not forgotten in road-funding announcement – but look what’s missing from RMA reform statement

Ministers have become adept at burying politically discomforting words in their press statements – or omitting them.

While announcing the passage through their third readings of bills to replace the Resource Management Act, for example, no mention was made of “matauranga Maori” or “the Treaty”.

But be sure they will play a part in the way resource use is managed henceforth.

Roger Partridge: Three strikes against David Parker's RMA reforms

This month, Environment Minister David Parker’s Resource Management Act reforms will be consigned to the dustbin of history. Provided, that is, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is listening.

Three extraordinary interventions during March point to the reform’s inevitable demise.

The first occurred at the start of the month. Chief Justice Helen Winkelman took the highly unusual step of publicly warning, in a submission to the Environment Select Committee, that Parker’s reforms would disrupt the courts.