Dean Jacqui; Smith Stuart; Parker DavidPart 5 Resource consenting and proposals of national significance CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Members we come now to Part 5 the debate on clauses 152AAA to 303 Resource consenting and proposals of national significance" including Schedules 10 and 10A. The question is that Part 5 stand part.STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you Madam Chair. It's good to get back into the Chamber after a brief interlude but I want to—Simon Court: Welcome back Stuart.STUART SMITH: —focus—oh thank you very much. I want to focus on clause 157 "Consent authority may permit activity by waiving compliance with certain requirements conditions or permissions". So in clause 157(1) it says "An activity is a permitted activity if (a) the activity would be a permitted activity except for a marginal or temporary non-compliance with requirements conditions and permissions specified in this Act the national planning framework or a plan; and (b) any adverse environmental effects of the activity are no different in character intensity or scale than they would be in the absence of the marginal or temporary non-compliance referred to in paragraph (a)".So what is "temporary"? That's not defined as far as I can see. If we're talking about geological time you know our time on earth is less than a second. If we're talking about you know of course the time for an insect well a second is half a lifetime almost. So we need to know what that marginal or temporary non-compliance is. We understand what non-compliance is but we want to know what the temporary or marginal means in this context because it's quite important for many activities actually. Water takes for example only have a marginal effect on a river or indeed an aquifer. It's only a marginal effect. That's probably been the biggest issue with allocating resources on a first come first served basis where one straw has very little impact on the camel's back but the last one causes a problem and then you've got to go back and assess how that matter can be mitigated.Hon Scott Simpson: A bit like the Labour Cabinet.STUART SMITH: The straws are falling though. They're not going on the back; they're falling. Yes.So it is important that we know what marginal and temporary non-compliance is. So I'm hoping that that is referred to somewhere else within the Act and I'm sure the Minister's looking it up so I look forward to his answer. Thank you.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I'm advised by officials that this is a carry-over of section 87BB in the Resource Management Act and it covers the situation where there is some temporary event that if it were long term would require a consent. But this provision allows the council to exercise their discretion and actually treat it as a part of the permitted activity.STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Well that's helpful but the council's discretion still doesn't actually define what "temporary" is. Is that one year one week 10 years or 10 weeks? I know that 10 years is ridiculous but there's nothing to define that as far as your explanation that you gave. It didn't enlighten us on that. So if you could be a bit more specific about that. Why isn't it actually in the legislation to more tightly define what marginal or temporary is?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): It relies upon a factual assessment by the council as it does under the current legislation. To set that in a specific way would be rigid and could either be too onerous in respect of some less consequential entities and not onerous enough in respect of some more contentious activities so the issue is left to a factual assessment by the councils to do practically as it is under section 87BB in the existing Resource Management Act."