Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. One of the things that should be at the top of this Government's priorities is to let New Zealanders build like the boomers did. One of the major problems we're facing today is that we're not building enough affordable homes to house New Zealanders. The Budget contains over $100 million out to financial year 2023/24 to enable the Government's resource management reform agenda but the focus really needs to be on how we enable people to actually build more homes and more things in this country starting with infrastructure roads bridges tunnels pipes and water and waste-water networks.Until the introduction of the Resource Management Act (RMA) in the 1990s average house prices were about two to three times the average income. In the last year we've seen house prices go up by $100000 on average and now the average home is six to nine times the average income. That's an appalling indictment on this Government's anti-development policy agenda. It's only been made worse by a lack of planning and a lack of funding for basic infrastructure—the most basic infrastructure—like roads which allow people to choose whether they drive a car or whether they take a bus to school or work and functioning water and waste-water networks in our towns and cities. We're facing maybe a $170 billion infrastructure deficit but how would we know? Nobody has actually surveyed them.Now think about it. When a developer has a vision now under the RMA for a new township or a new business hub how are they treated? You look at Sleepyhead in the North Waikato. They proposed a model town and development $1.2 billion worth of work contributing $200 million a year during its lifetime and the only major objectors were Environment Waikato and the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA). Environment Waikato—they didn't want Sleepyhead and The Comfort Group to build the model town. They wanted them to go and redevelop the town they'd let run down at Huntly and NZTA didn't want traffic on its expressway did they?Hon David Bennett: Have you been to Huntly recently? You can't say it's run down.SIMON COURT: Well they didn't want traffic on their expressway because apparently that's not what highways are for.Now the Government plans to replace one anti-development Act with three new Acts and they expect us to believe that that will actually make things less complicated. The fear ACT has with this approach is that it will actually entrench the worst local government behaviours and planning practices. There are going to still be a whole lot of people telling you what you can do with your land but more importantly what you can't do with the land that you own. That is why ACT would repeal the Resource Management Act entirely and replace it with a separate environmental protection Act and an urban development Act. Our urban development Act would be based on the Productivity Commission's report Better urban planning. That significantly expands the rights of landowners to develop their own land.Our environmental protection Act would be rules-based to give landowners and developers of infrastructure and homes certainty and confidence. ACT's environmental protection Act would focus only on those environmental issues not already covered by other schemes. We wouldn't waste time talking about climate change in our environmental protection Act; it's already covered by the emissions trading scheme. If we wish to get more New Zealanders into safe and affordable homes we must end irrational planning restrictions. ACT's repeal of the RMA would not only accelerate housebuilding; it would also allow faster infrastructure development.The Government recognised these problems when they created their fast track for their own pet projects. ACT believes all infrastructure projects should be fast tracked or enabled not just the trendy ones which the Prime Minister wants her photograph taken by. Our reforms to the RMA would increase certainty for developers and local councils giving them the confidence to develop and deliver ambitious infrastructure projects without living in fear of the Environment Court. Only then can we deliver the infrastructure and affordable housing that New Zealand needs. Thank you.