Wagner Nicky: Resource Management Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill (No 2) Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWagner Nicky: Resource Management Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill (No 2) Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:12855. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central): The purpose of the Resource Management Act is to promote the sustainable management of our natural and physical resources. It is also our major planning tool so it is important that it works well. It is important that it supports the environment it safeguards the environment and it provides the rules that underpin the well-being and the future of all New Zealanders.The Resource Management Amendment Bill is focused on improving the functioning of this legislation so that we can get the best possible outcomes for the environment and support economic growth. There is an old saying that justice delayed is justice denied and that is relevant here because long drawn-out clumsy decision-making processes add absolutely no value to the environmental outcome. They stymie economic growth they stop development and most important they hamper the creation of jobs. When it comes to planning and consenting we all want consistent good-quality timely decisions and this bill will encourage that. It will encourage time-effective and efficient decision-making.The bill requires better-quality analysis in section 32 reports. These reports underpin important local government decision-making on plan changes and projects but they tend to be inconsistent in quality. The new bill requires much more careful consideration and more robust cost-benefit analysis. In particular analysts must consider how their decision will affect economic growth and the creation of jobs. Some submitters were concerned about the time and expense this sort of work may take for councils but we made it very clear that the analysis should match the size and the scale of the projects. The Local Government and Environment Committee also amended the legislation to ensure that both the positives and the negatives of the economy in economic growth must be considered.The bill also provides for a 6-month time limit on consents for medium-sized projects. When you look at consents presently most of them get through in about 9 months but some take many many more months—a lot longer. We believe that a quality decision can be produced within those 6 months. The quality means that there is no loss to the environment but a consistent 6-month timetable will provide significant cost savings and again will help increase job opportunities.Under this legislation major regional projects will have the option of direct referral to the Environment Court. They may still choose to go through the local government process but unless they are in exceptional circumstances councils must support theirapplications to go directly to the Environment Court. This will avoid the time and the costs of duplication of processes. Overall the changes in Part 1 of the Resource Management Amendment Bill will provide better new mechanisms to deliver better-quality environmental outcomes in a timely cost-effective way.The second bill arising from the Resource Management Reform Bill the Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Amendment Bill provides a streamlined process for making operational the Auckland Unitary Plan. These changes will mean that the Auckland Council will be able to deliver its plan within 3 years as opposed to up to 10 years which would have been done under business-as-usual processes. This plan will have a huge significance for Auckland. It is the largest and most complex planning exercise ever undertaken in the country and is expected to involve over 10000 submissions so the Auckland Council requested a new legislative framework. This framework will combine the normal two-tier process of council hearings for consenting and planning with appeals to the Environment Court. It will combine them in a one-step process but it still allows for all the opportunities for mediation and negotiation. It will deliver good outcomes in a faster and more efficient way. It will be good for Auckland to get its plan in place within the next 3 years.I would finally like to just comment on the amendments to section 360 of the Resource Management Act in the Resource Management Amendment Bill. This Government is particularly interested in facilitating better environmental reporting. At present regional and local councils do significant environmental testing and monitoring and they collect a lot of environmental information but there is no consistent framework around that information and how that information should be presented. The amendments in this bill allow for the introduction of regulations. These regulations will be agreed in consultation with the councils and require local authorities to monitor according to specific priorities and methods. This will provide us with the data so that we will be able to deliver much-improved environmental reporting and I strongly support that.This legislation is designed to safeguard the environment but provides rules that work better for all New Zealanders. I commend these bills to the House.