Smith Nick: Resource Management Reform Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: Resource Management Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7339. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 Firstly I want to commend the Minister for the Environment Amy Adams for this bill the Resource Management Reform Bill which sensibly builds on National’s first phase of changes to the Resource Management Act. One of the principal changes in this bill is to limit notified consents to being done within 6 months. Let me give members opposite a very practical example of why that change is needed. Right now in my community the Government is wanting to build a teen parent unit to give the opportunity for teenagers and their babies to be able to get a good-quality education. It is disgraceful—disgraceful—that a simple change to allow that to be built on the site of a primary school and an early childhood education centre not only requires a resource consent but also has been delayed by more than 6 months because of the Resource Management Act. Members opposite have the gall to get up in this House and to lecture us about child poverty and yet we are trying to do something about it to resolve it in that way with bills like this and they say no. My challenge to Eugenie Sage is this: how was the management of water in Canterbury helped by it taking 19 years to get a damned water plan? And I ask: how are the issues of Auckland helped by it taking 10 years to get a plan for developing our biggest city? We say that we can do better. 
Although this bill is technical it actually illustrates so aptly at the end of this parliamentary year the differences between this National Government and the members opposite. We on this side of the House are about making the Resource Management Act work more efficiently so that we can build the infrastructure so that we can have affordable homes and so that we can build the industries and grow exports and jobs. Members opposite have made plain in their contributions on this bill that they stand for bureaucracy and procrastination—bureaucracy and procrastination. You see when they were in office the number of late consents grew from 6000 a year to 16000 a year. What did they do? Absolutely nothing. And what did they do when it took years—a decade like the Whangamata marina—to get a resource consent? They introduced three resource management amendment bills and every one of them made the process more bureaucratic. 
So I am delighted that we are ending the political year on this Resource Management Reform Bill. It shows that National is walking the talk on making sure we have got modern infrastructure. It shows that National is walking the talk and not just shedding crocodile tears on the issue of affordable housing. It shows that National is walking the talk with businesses that actually have the capacity to grow exports and to grow jobs. This bill is actually a test at the end of the year. Are members in favour of jobs exports affordable housing and growth? Opposition members are saying no. We are saying yes. We have got a plan and we are delivering on it.