O'Connor Greg; Smith Stuart; Simpson Scott; Brooking RachelPart 8 Matters relevant to natural and built environment plans CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Members we come now to Part 8 the debate on clauses 497 to 553 Matters relevant to natural and built environment plans". The question is that Part 8 stand part.STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you Mr Chair. I want to discuss clause 500 "Criteria for approval as requiring authority". Now this will be particularly important to the energy sector both for building new generation but also building new transmission and distribution lines as well as all of the associated activities that go with that such as substations and so on. I would like first to begin with the Minister giving an assurance that what we have today and what the sector is used to dealing with is materially the same as what this bill will do when it comes into force for a brief period before we repeal it after the election. So if you could just enlighten us on that Minister that would be much appreciated.Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Well it's come somewhat as a disappointment that the Minister appears to have lost her voice and is seemingly no longer of a mood to answer questions. So maybe we'll continue on with Part 8. Again this is a part of the clause—Subpart 1 relates to designations and again my suspicion is that much of this wording will have come from the existing Resource Management Act. But that said there are a couple of changes that I see that have been made in terms of the Minister's Supplementary Order Paper. They appear to be minor but at 509(3) there are some typographical changes that I suspect are more to do with form than substance. But those are the matters that relate to iwi Māori. I'm keen to know what the Minister's view is about the designations; is she happy and satisfied that they are sufficiently robust and futureproofed to ensure that the objectives of the total bill will be met given that this appears to be largely a cut and paste of existing provisions?We had been told that much of this bill was designed to make things easier to make them smoother and yet the reality as we've debated at length has been that much of these clauses right through in Subpart 1 are on the face of it pieces of legislation that are going to make things more complicated more expensive and more confusing for lay people. So if the Minister could give us an insight into why the few changes that have been made have been made and why perhaps there hasn't been a more radical review of designations and matters that are relevant to the natural and built environment plan process?Hon RACHEL BROOKING (Associate Minister for the Environment): In relation to the Hon Scott Simpson's point about changes in the Supplementary Order Paper I'm advised that yes they are all technical in nature. Related to Scott Simpson's points about—sorry you are Scott Simpson. Related to Stuart Smith's point—it would be good if you didn't sit next to each other!—about who can be a requiring authority generally as the Hon Scott Simpson just said most of this is taken from the Resource Management Act (RMA). But one of the changes from the RMA is wider access to the designation powers and that these will be in effect straight away. So it will be more useful than the current RMA."