7. Question No. 7—EnvironmentRACHEL BROOKING (Labour) to the Minister for the EnvironmentQuestion No. 7—Environment7. RACHEL BROOKING (Labour) to the Minister for the Environment: What progress is the Government making on reform of the Resource Management Act?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Today the Government confirmed that the Resource Management Act (RMA) will be repealed and replaced with new laws this parliamentary term. The three new Acts will be the natural and built environments Act the NBA to provide for land-use and environmental regulation—this will be the primary replacement for the RMA; the strategic planning Act to integrate with other legislation relevant to development and require long-term regional spatial strategies—this Act will integrate functions under the NBA the Local Government Act the Land Transport Management Act and the Climate Change Response Act to enable clearer and more efficient decision-making and investment; and the climate change adaptation Act led by the Hon James Shaw to address complex issues associated with managed retreat and funding and financing adaptation.Rachel Brooking: Why is the Government repealing and replacing the Resource Management Act? Hon DAVID PARKER: Urban areas have struggled to keep pace with population growth and the need for affordable housing water quality has deteriorated biodiversity has diminished and there's an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to climate change. The new laws will improve the natural environment enable more development within environmental limits provide an effective role for Māori and improve housing supply and affordability. Overall planning processes will be simplified and costs and times reduced.Rachel Brooking: How will the replacement for the RMA simplify consenting processes?Hon DAVID PARKER: Key changes include stronger national direction and one single combined plan per region. As I said earlier there will be more focus on natural environment outcomes and less on subjective amenity values that favour the status quo. Nevertheless better urban design can also be pursued. The existing 100-plus RMA council planning documents will be reduced to about 14. New spatial strategies will enable everyone to plan better for the future and this will aid investment decisions by central government local government and perhaps most importantly the private sector and housing markets.Rachel Brooking: How will the replacements for the RMA improve housing affordability?Hon DAVID PARKER: Urban areas hold 86 percent of our population; 99 percent of our population growth occurs in urban areas. Despite that reality instead of cities responding to population growth we've had some poor-quality and restrictive planning rules contributing to unaffordable housing. Now we know that housing problems are a complex mix of demand infrastructure financing home supply training of apprentices etc. so there's no silver bullet—Hon Dr Nick Smith: You used to say KiwiBuild was the silver bullet.Hon DAVID PARKER: Well it actually has helped and it built more homes than that member ever built in nine years in Government. This reform will help further by improving central and local government plans for housing and urban development. It includes better coordination of future infrastructure with land use development and urban growth and these changes will build on the updated National Policy Statement on Urban Development that already directs councils to make room for growth both up and out. Hon Scott Simpson: How many years after the eventual passing of the Minister's legislative suite will it take for local government to actually implement change?Hon DAVID PARKER: That's actually I think a very good question because one of the reasons the RMA went wrong was that it was passed but then no work was done on its implementation until after it was passed so it took many years to produce new plans under the RMA the appeal courts were just overrun with plan references and there was no national direction. We've got all those things covered this time and we're actually going to be doing all this contemporaneously including drafting a model plan for a region as we reduce those plan numbers from over 100 to around 14. Hon Scott Simpson: Would he characterise his proposed new legislative suite as an end to nimbyism?Hon DAVID PARKER: Look people and companies have private interests local authorities have local interests and none of them are improper but we have to make sure that they don't clog the system up unduly. In that regard I do find it a bit surprising that Government and Opposition parties having backed the fast-track legislation now write letters of criticisms to me and other Ministers when we allow projects through that fast-track consenting regime. Notwithstanding that I look forward to working with other political parties to try and get this balance right.