Connell Brian: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Connell Brian: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5586] 
BRIAN CONNELL (NZ National—Rakaia) 
: 
 I thank my colleague for his Winston Churchill story because when I look across at the senior Government whip I know that this legislation is ugly I really do. This legislation is ugly for a couple of reasons. If one condenses an 18-part bill into two then it is ugly. It is a disgraceful abuse of the parliamentary process. 
I have said before that fixing the Resource Management Act would do more to underpin New Zealand’s prosperity than anything else I can think of. I want to use the example of water as it pertains to the good people of Canterbury. They understand that if they could bring all their irrigation initiatives on board they would generate something like 20000 new jobs and make a contribution of about $2.2 billion to the local economy. That is how we grow our economy. 
I say to the Minister that that is why we should have fixed the Resource Management Act and that is what she has done wrong. She is wrong because it takes people an inordinate amount of time to get consents to use water in a sustainable way they are cross about it and they will bring the Government down as a consequence. As I have said before when Bill English is the Prime Minister he will put people in the ministry chairs who can actually get things done and I look forward to that opportunity. If the Resource Management Act were fixed— 
David Benson-Pope 
: Sell sell sell! 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Is that the Government whip yelling out again? I ask the Minister in the chair the Hon Marian Hobbs to bring on the dog legislation so that we can get him muzzled. Will she do that for me? If she could use a bit of influence in her caucus I would certainly appreciate that. 
The point I was going to make was that if we generated income and grew our economy “dinosaur Jim” would not have to sneak through legislation in the middle of the night and target old people’s bottles of port or sherry and Michael Cullen would not be party to the act of getting a sneaky tax grab because he would not need to do it. If the Government did not have to do things under urgency and in desperation it might even get things right for a change. 
Doing something right would be novel for the senior Government whip. 
Winston Churchill also had another famous story that included Lady Astor. She wandered up to him one night and said: “Sir your fly is undone.” He replied “Madam dead birds don’t fall out of trees.” This is dead bird legislation. It will not do anything. I am reminded again of the senior Government whip when I think of that story because dead birds do not do anything and this legislation will not do anything to drive business into the local economy. In fact it will drive businesses out of the local economy. 
This legislation as it is now framed will do an economy good—someone else’s because businesses will leave this country in droves. They will close their doors and people will be out of jobs. They will track back and find out why that happened and they will put it very squarely at the Minister’s feet. They will say that she had an opportunity to do things but she ignored it. The Minister would have this Committee believe that businesses have been consulted and that they are in agreement. 
I have another press release. This one from the Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association states: “The Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) currently before Parliament does nothing of consequence to address business concerns with the Resource Management Act 1991. We urge Government to seek a parliamentary majority for further changes to the Resource Management Act to ensure sustainable management and development is not stifled.” That is from Alasdair Thompson chief executive of the Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association. The Minister should take a call and tell me whether Federated Farmers and the Northern Employers and Manufacturers Association are not organisations with significant influence and whether they do not represent a significant proportion of the business people of this country. The Minister should look me in the eye and say that those people have been consulted and are in agreement. The Minister should hang her head because what she is doing is an absolute disgrace. 
The press release states further: “Our concerns for the present bill are twofold: it will erode business confidence by adding costs—