Bob Edlin: Cultural caveat to planning consent.....

Cultural caveat to planning consent: trees can’t be toppled for solar power farm without local iwi coming in to pray

Kiwiblog has steered us to some fascinating Treaty-influenced how’s-your-father and regulatory nonsense in Hawke’s Bay .

Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 9/8/24

Making it easier to comply: a respite from quake-remedial requirements and clarification for discharge consents

The headline on one of the latest ministerial press statements generated a bit of conjecture among Point of Order writers.

The government was assuring us of …

David Farrar: Paying off objectors

Stuff reports:

Meridian Energy is not revealing the amount it has paid Ngāi Tahu as it seeks to renew resource consents for its Waitaki Hydro Power Scheme.

Last year Meridian signed agreements with Ngā Rūnanga o Waitaki (Arowhenua, Waihao and Moeraki), the Department of Conservation (DOC) and Central South Island Fish & Game which included financial settlements.

Ele Ludemann: Whose view matters?

Friends were planning to build a new home on their high country station.

The consent process was long and expensive.

Among the objections raised was that the house would be seen from the near by lake.

Dr Eric Crampton: Consenting, Carbon, and Councils

Policy problems should be dealt with by the level and part of government best placed to deal with them.

Good public policy should recognise subsidiarity. Local problems should be dealt with locally. But not all problems are local. A council issuing its own currency to address perceived failures in national-level monetary policy would not be a great idea.

Kerre Woodham: How necessary are resource consents?

Let's start with the announcement yesterday from Chris Bishop allowing people to build small granny flats without requiring consent. It's followed through, the coalition government, on its promise to cut red tape around the resource consent process. The announcement was made yesterday, and they said it will be easier for people to put a granny flat in their backyard without having to go through the hoohah of a costly consent process.

NZCPR Newsletter: Mana or Money

When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. 

After receiving a financial payment from the company however, the Ngai Tahu sub-tribe changed its mind and publicly supported the scheme.