Roche Denise: 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 VolumeRoche Denise: 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:12868. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker.Tēnā koutou e te Whare. The Greens will be opposing this legislation arising from the Resource Management Reform Bill. It is ironic that it is seeing its passage through the House at this time. It is ironic because it may have escaped the notice of some members’ attention but we are in the throes of local government elections at the moment. Up in Auckland they will be electing councillors local board members and a mayor—probably the mayor whom the National Government does not want again.Why should we bother? Why should we bother with local government elections when we have got bills like these coming through the House and legislation like this? Why bother with the democratic rights of people to be involved in developments in their areas and their neighbourhoods? Why should we bother? Why bother when we have got a Government that will determine the make-up of the hearings panel that will hear the Auckland Unitary Plan? Why should we bother with local government at all? Why should we bother when the hearings panel can if it likes make recommendations around the Auckland Unitary Plan—the one plan for Auckland—that are completely outside the scope of what the submissions have been? Why should we bother with local government? Why should we bother when it is not being listened to by this Government and when we have a Government that actually insists that we do not include our communities in shaping the future of our cities? The example here is Auckland again where the Auckland Spatial Plan the 30-year plan which communities across the city worked on is not given the same legal weight or any legal weight. It will simply be given a bit of regard when it comes to the unitary plan.We have real concerns that this legislation undermines local participation not just in these examples that I have just specified but also when it comes to the referral of medium-sized applications straight to the Environment Court. We note that in the legislation there is no clear definition of what a medium-sized development is and there is no real definition of what the threshold is that has to be maintained before it gets fast tracked to the Environment Court. But we note that when that happens communities are locked out of the process. We have already heard from other speakers about how the Resource Management Act is currently working in terms of consents. We have heard about the numbers that are notified and there are very few. We have also heard about the numbers that are actually granted which are more than 90 percent.This legislation is a solution looking for a problem in most cases. I agree with some of the former speakers that this is about ideology. It is already possible under the current law under the current Resource Management Act to go directly to the Environment Court without a council hearing the submitters or hearing from the local community. We see this time and time again. In my local community we have currently had our Auckland Council refer a consent for a marina right through to the Environment Court without it being heard in the local area despite the fact that it was originally notified despite the fact that there were over 500 submissions and despite the fact that it goes against all sorts of democracy to send it straight to the Environment Court when our local people want to have a say. The Resource Management Act is already working in favour of developers.What about Māori in all this? Where do Māori sit when there is a direct referral? We know that under the existing Act Māori are entitled to be consulted on any type of consent that comes through. What we do not know with this legislation because it is silent is what happens to iwi in that consultation. What happens when a consent is fast tracked when the time has been restricted? We already know that some iwi frequently lack capacity to participate fully and that the time constraints that are already placed onthem by councils can be debilitating. This Government clearly does not care about that. I do note that it is consulting further on freshwater management with iwi and that is the next round of legislation that will be coming through.We will be opposing this legislation. We see that it does more harm than good. It does nothing to assist our damaged reputation.