O'Connor Greg; Simpson Scott; Brooking RachelWEDNESDAY 2 AUGUST 2023(continued on 3 August 2023)SPATIAL PLANNING BILLIn CommitteeDebate resumed.Clauses 1 and 2 (continued) CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Good morning members. The committee is resumed on the Spatial Planning Bill. When we suspended the debate last night we were considering clauses 1 and 2. Once again the question is that clauses 1 and 2 stand part.Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Mr Chair. It's good to be back this morning. For those people that are watching on their television sets or perhaps listening on their wirelesses or even on their crystal sets maybe I want to just give a little bit of a moment's background about where we are and what we're doing. So we are considering at the moment what's referred to as the title and commencement phase of the committee of the whole House—that's clauses 1 and 2 of the Spatial Planning Bill. Now the Spatial Planning Bill is the second leg of the Government's trifecta plan to reform and change the Resource Management Act regime that has been in place since the early 1990s and which is accepted—I think across the Parliament—to have had its day. But when we come to this Spatial Planning Bill and its relationship with the Natural and Built Environment legislation the two are intimately and fundamentally connected. So when we come to the commencement of this Spatial Planning Bill it's a very simple commencement clause; it reads: This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent." Now that stands in stark contrast to the commencement provisions that go in the sister piece of legislation which is the Natural and Built Environment legislation. Now in that piece of legislation it was a very long and complicated commencement clause. This one just says "the day after the date [at] which it receives the Royal assent." That's a more traditional standardised and familiar commencement clause to members of this House—it's pretty simple.But my question to the Minister is: why in this piece of legislation does it not necessarily match the quite complicated and convoluted commencement process in the Natural and Built Environment legislation? And does she think that this is actually going to be able to commence a process that will kick off in a way that will be synchronised with the sister piece of legislation? Because it's very important that we consider these two pieces of legislation as a box set. We do of course not yet have the third part of the legislation which is the adaptation piece. We've been told that that will be introduced to the Parliament before the Parliament rises at the end of August so we're running out of time on that and it would be helpful to have some clarity and comment from the Minister in the chair as to how the commencement date of this piece of legislation fits with the sister pieces of legislation—the one that we have seen and considered at length and in detail and also the piece of legislation that we haven't seen and are yet to consider.Hon RACHEL BROOKING (Associate Minister for the Environment): Well I'm very happy to agree with the Hon Scott Simpson on a number of points there; of course this bill is very very closely linked with the Natural and Built Environment Bill and I also agree that it has a very simple commencement clause. Of course I would refer to Schedule 1 in the transitional provisions that this bill is about making a plan and that plan must be made within three years after the committee is treated as established under the Natural and Built Environment Bill. So they are clearly linked. In terms of the climate adaptation piece of legislation that is a discrete and difficult topic as I know the member appreciates and these two other pieces of legislation can work without it. Of course it will be a good piece of legislation when it comes through and important for New Zealand dealing with climate change."