Court Simon; Parker DavidSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Minister I'd like to ask you some questions about consenting under the Resource Management Act (RMA)—to start with fast-track consenting. The Port of Tauranga has been trying for two years to get consent to extend its wharf a $65 million project to expand a port facility which handles 42 percent of New Zealand's shipping. It's been rejected by the Environmental Protection Authority and that consent application has been kicked back to the slow lane. That port believes that it's only got three more years before it runs out of capacity. We've seen major supply chain issues which are causing costs to flow through into the economy and inflation in every sector of the economy. Does the Minister think this is acceptable and if not what will he do to get this project on track? I want to come to Auckland housing development. Developers can't even get consents for simple housing developments in a reasonable time frame. Auckland Council had over 800 consent applications for land use and subdivision but no planners to allocate them to as of February 2022. That means that the RMA 20-day consent requirement to actually issue consents 20 days after they're received hasn't even started. Some of these applications were made in October November; they hadn't been allocated Minister. That means thousands of homes won't get built this year because a council doesn't have the resources the capability to actually consent basic earthworks and subdivision for housing. Does the Minister think this is acceptable and if not what urgent and immediate action will he take to unlock the consent backlog for both major projects like Tauranga port and housing in Auckland? Finally Minister the freshwater regulations two years ago—they've been unworkable. We haven't seen water get any fresher as a result but what we have seen is that farmers identify correctly that it's impractical for them to be sowing crops while there's still snow on the ground. So the Minister and the department varied the freshwater regulations so that farmers could plant crops and they wouldn't die in the cold.Unfortunately quarry operators pointed to other issues with the freshwater rules particularly around prohibitions on disturbing wet areas that mean they can't even start the earthworks needed to get to the blue rock for construction. Now Minister I know these quarry operators and land developers have raised this with you multiple times over the past two years and that you and your department have undertaken to do the work to unlock land for quarrying and inland development but some quarries are now mothballing. They're moving their gear to the Waikato and what that means is every truck that travels 30 kilometres every 30 kilometres doubles the cost to quarry rock. That's adding cost into housing and construction and infrastructure. It's causing inflation to flow through to all aspects of the economy. Minister do you think it's OK to stop quarrying to stop local land development because of your freshwater rules and if not what are you going to do about it and when are you going to do something about it Minister? Thank you.Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I really enjoy it when the ACT Party leads with their chin. In respect of the consenting issues in Auckland—and I see a few smiles on the face of the National Party here though because they know that the ACT Party made a terrible tactical mistake on this—the number of homes being consented for being built in Auckland since we came into power has doubled from 10000 per annum to 20000 per annum. On this side of the House we call that success; on the other side of the House they can't get over the fact that they lost the election in 2017. In respect of the fact Do we need to do even better? Do we need to create more building opportunities so that fewer people need a resource consent to build a house?" we absolutely do and we cooperated with the Green Party and the National Party in respect of upzoning legislation to change the plans in councils including Auckland to make it a permitted activity for which you do not need a resource consent to build up to three houses three stories high with the appropriate setbacks in the suburbs of Auckland. What did the ACT Party do? They voted against it. Why did they vote against it? Because their leader lives in Epsom in the leafy suburbs of Epsom. They didn't want to have any housing intensification in Epsom. And so an incredible blue means that the ACT Party for the whole of this Parliament has got no political credibility on any criticisms of the Resource Management Act (RMA) or its replacement legislation. Simon Court: Point of order Madam Chair. The questions are quite specific. They're about the Port of Tauranga. What is the Minister going to do to get the fast-track consenting application for the Port of Tauranga on track? It's about: what is the Minister going to do to get Auckland Council to start processing 800 consents? The Minister knows that it is 15 percent down in January. And what is the Minister going to do to get the quarry operators working again by reforming the freshwater regulations that he has promised them they will do? Madam Chair—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Thank you. You will now take your seat. That was not a point of order. That was a debating point and I will now go back to the Minister.Hon DAVID PARKER: I was enjoying responding to the question as to why we haven't done more than double consents in Auckland from 10000 per annum to 20000 per annum and pass legislation to mean that fewer resource consents will be needed in the future because we've got this upzoning legislation that every party in this House voted for except the ACT Party which is ashamed to this day that they turned back on their deregulatory criticisms of why we haven't got enough housing and backed their leader in Epsom because he was worried about the leafy suburbs and whether he would get their lifeboat seat in order to get elected again in their dirty deal that they do in Epsom with the National Party every time.So in respect of the question as to what are we doing well we've got that legislation already passed and those new plans have to be promulgated by Auckland by August this year which will make a massive further increase in terms of building opportunities in Auckland. I thank the National Party and I thank the Green Party and actually I thank the ACT Party for the opportunity to highlight that on one more occasion. In addition to that we are baking into the new Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA) system expansive housing markets because although the planning system isn't the only cause of excessive house prices particularly excessive land prices in New Zealand it is one of the issues. The National-ACT Government in nine years did nothing to fix it and we are because we are the party of deregulatory reform where necessary to have more expansive land markets including in Auckland. In respect of the two other questions that he raised: Tauranga we have put that on to direct referral to—I forget whether it's to the Environment Court or to the Environmental Protection Authority. But then the notification decision in legislation that the ACT Party and the National Party changed when last in Government said that where a non-notification decision is to be challenged that goes to the High Court rather the Environment Court which was a stupid decision of those Governments which stopped notification disputes being resolved quickly in the Environment Court. That is stuck at the moment. Again that will be fixed by the new NBA which we will pass this term of Government in a way that the National Party and the ACT Party never achieved. The third issue that he raised which is a fair criticism actually of the freshwater reforms was that we did not get it quite right in respect of wetland protection and it has had an impact quarries for example. That has been consulted upon. The way in which you change national guidance under the RMA is very very constipated and takes a long time—something else we're going to fix in the national planning framework. But until then we've actually got to comply with the law under the RMA which we are. And those changes are in drafting and are expected in an exposure draft form to be provided to industry participants in May."