Muller Todd: Resource Legislation Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMuller Todd: Resource Legislation Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 03 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8574. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): I rise to take a short call in support of the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill which is being discussed this afternoon. It is a practical bill supporting business growth housing development and effective environmental management. And boy is this needed. As we have heard already this afternoon under our current regime we have a very inconsistent and expensive planning regime. We have had a number of organisations—the OECD Local Government New Zealand and the Rules Reduction Taskforce—all arguing for and advocating for significant change for many many years. But the need for these changes in my view has been most powerfully voiced by New Zealanders who want to renovate or build a home start a business expand their activity and employ more people. That is why I stand with great pride to support this first reading.Of course we had hoped we could achieve more in terms of what we could introduce today and that has already been well canvassed. We certainly would have liked greater weight to be put around clauses 6 and 7 in respect of economic development and opportunities. But we have got a significant piece of reform on the table for discussion over the next few months.Of course we have just had a very interesting contribution from the Māori Party’s Marama Fox. I want to echo some of the points she has made particularly in respect of ensuring through this bill that Māori have the opportunity to contribute to collaborative processes that are going to be required to be held as either collaborative or streamlined processes as required in this bill in the discussion of natural resource use into the future. Quite frankly that is needed and required in this country. For too long as Marama Fox has already touched on in respect of large tracts of this country that is Māori land they have not had the opportunity to have their voice effectively heard as resource-use issues have been debated. Under the old “first come first served” model often their voices were not heard so it is appropriate to have the obligation put in this legislation for them to be assured of the opportunity to be participating as other stakeholders do in this country around natural resources and the use of water. It reflects New Zealand of 2015 and will unlock significant economic opportunity for this country as we do it.This is a significant piece of legislation. I would love to be able to talk further about the benefits that it will deliver particularly in terms of housing development because it will be significant. Where I come from in Tauranga we already have significant embracing of these principles. We have smart growth we have a very planned approach in terms of how we develop new housing and settlement development but too many places and areas in this country are not like that. We absolutely need this legislation and we need it now and I look forward to a very considered discussion and debate over the next few months. Thank you.