Wagner Nicky: Resource Management Reform Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Resource Management Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7334. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 In contrast to the previous speaker Grant Robertson I am very pleased to be supporting this bill the Resource Management Reform Bill. We do need to see reform of the Resource Management Act and we believe that these will be good reforms. National is absolutely committed to looking after our environment while encouraging economic growth. As Bluegreens we believe that good environmental practices underpin the prosperity of our nation and that prudent and careful managing of our natural resources can and should go hand in hand with developing our economy. Improving the way that the Resource Management Act works is key to our Government’s programme and this bill is the second tranche in Resource Management Act reform. 
This bill has four distinct areas. The first is a focus on Auckland. It is a focus to streamline the planning process and to support the production of Auckland’s first combined plan in a good length of time. The second is to improve the time efficiency and effectiveness of the consenting process for medium-sized projects and to provide for easier direct referral to the Environment Court for major regional projects. The third and this is what Mr Robertson has been discussing is to require a more robust process with stronger information requirements for council decision-making particularly around the analysis in section 32 reports. Finally the fourth is a series of minor and technical amendments. This work follows up on the significant Resource Management Act reform that was done in 2009 which actually took a lot of the time of the Local Government and Environment Committee and we were very pleased to do that work. Despite the dire predictions from Labour following on from the conspiracy theories of Mr Robertson we have had very good responses from those 2009 amendments. We have been very pleased to see how those reforms have been received. There has been hardly any criticism at all and there have been significant improvements in the quality and the timeliness of the consenting process. 
Also we have seen the effectiveness of the national consenting provisions or the Environmental Protection Authority consenting provisions which have predicated some of this new work and particularly in terms of the Waterview Connection decision-making. Everybody who was involved in that regardless of whether or not they liked the decision was pleased with the way the process worked out. 
Finally it was very good to see the creation of the Environmental Protection Authority which came out of that legislation. Just last week the Local Government and Environment Committee reviewed the Environmental Protection Authority and discussed the establishment process and its first year of work and was very pleased to see how well it was functioning. I believe that the establishment of the Environmental Protection Authority will be an important contributor to the effective management of our natural resources as we go forward. 
Following this bill there will be further amendments to the Resource Management Act to deal with planning weak planning unnecessary costs and delays and to introduce freshwater reforms based on the recommendations of the Land and Water Forum. This of course is particularly important legislation and New Zealanders are keen to see new ways of managing our water resources. Everyone in this House understands the importance of getting this Resource Management Act legislation right and the Local Government and Environment Committee looks forward to working on this bill and looks forward to the submissions process. Thank you.