Upston Louise: Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill — Procedure Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Upston Louise: Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill — Procedure Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6236] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 I am thrilled to speak in support of the Resource Management Act (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill in its third reading debate. This has been my first experience of taking a bill from its introduction through to the third reading and it has reinforced my faith in democracy and the working of Parliament. 
We have had a large number of submissions—close to 900—the involvement of a technical advisory group an expert panel and a robust select committee process all of which has ended up with all parties except the Green Party supporting this bill. In saying that I know that the Green Party has agreed with some of the parts and with some of the changes that this bill makes. The National Government is delivering on its promises. This Government introduced this bill into the House in its first 100 days and 6 months later is taking it for its final reading. 
I will focus on the intent of the bill which is to streamline and simplify. The Minister for the Environment the Hon Dr Nick Smith has said that reform of the Resource Management Act is an important part of the Government’s work programme and is critical to our country’s future prosperity. It is about the costs the uncertainty and the delays that the current Resource Management Act creates. The Act has an adverse impact on New Zealanders on New Zealand jobs on what we can do in terms of infrastructure and on productivity. It also causes economic frustrations for ordinary homeowners small businesses and farmers. I have faced many constituents in the Taupo electorate who have come to my office with frustrations about these sorts of delays and costs in the treatment of what appear to be quite simple resource consent applications. 
The purpose of the bill is to redress the balance of the ever-important environmental protection versus economic growth. We all recognise the importance of both and that the balance between them is paramount. At the moment approval for projects of national or local significance have a timeline of years as opposed to months and many projects of significant benefit are held up through the process of getting that ever-important resource consent. The new Government is committed to creating a robust and sustainable framework for development and growth for New Zealand but it is not just about the big projects. I want to reinforce that. It is not just the large projects that are delayed. It is often the small and simple projects as well such as the garage the home renovation or dare I say it as has been the case the trimming or removal of a tree. 
I spoke earlier about the example of my own brother in Auckland who had a simple renovation that required a resource consent. He expected that he would be waiting 20 days until he got his resource consent from the Auckland City Council but how many months did it take? It took 7 months to get a resource consent for an extension on a home. So it is not just the large projects we are talking about. It is the simple ones as well. 
Hon John Carter 
: He was lucky it only took 7 months. 
LOUISE UPSTON 
: That is right. There are many cases we have all heard of that are far in excess of 7 months. He was indeed a lucky man to get it through in only 7 months. But when it is meant to take 20 days we say that is not good enough. That is what this bill changes. 
The important thing is that the bill is the first phase of a two-stage process. We are not solving all of the problems with the Resource Management Act in this first bill. We have focused on simplifying and streamlining. There is a large amount of work yet to come in the second stage of the reforms. But I reiterate that this is not just tinkering at the edges. It will address some of the problems that have been there for years. It was unfortunate that the previous Labour Government did not take the time to address those problems but I am thrilled that the Opposition is now on board with us in making these changes. The provisions will provide stronger tools for managing anti-competitive behaviour new consent pathways and a rationalisation of decision making in existing consent categories. These amendments will have a significant impact on the processes under the Act that have led to delay uncertainty frustration and of course additional and unnecessary costs. There are a few changes to the level of public involvement but the balance has been worked through carefully. I believe this bill strikes a better balance between the public’s right to be involved and the need for both sensible and timely decisions. 
I make the point again though that these changes and this rebalancing does not mean a reduction in environmental quality. In the Taupo electorate it is critical in terms of our local economy that the environmental quality is not reduced. I believe that we have got this balance right. We have had repetitive and costly consultation processes broad appeal rights and time-consuming reporting requirements which are adding tens of thousands of dollars and years to plan preparation and change processes. I re-emphasise that slow and overly bureaucratic processes do not do anything to protect the environment. 
As I said at the start of my speech I have had my faith in the parliamentary process very much reinforced. The select committee worked well. There have been some significant changes as a result of the submissions from the public. We heard many of those submitters in person and it was great that the Minister was very committed to making sure that we had a law that worked. We listened to the submitters and the Local Government and Environment Committee worked tirelessly for hours on end to nut through the issues and make some of the changes. 
I will focus on a couple of those changes. One of the issues is of course the delays in processing of resource consents and this was reinforced by the biennial survey of councils which demonstrated that only 69 percent of applications are processed within the statutory time frames. I am sure no one here would dispute the fact that that is simply not good enough. Other changes as a result of the submissions have meant that we have limited rather than removed further rounds of submissions on plan changes. We have strengthened the process for national consenting and national environmental standards we will not proceed with the removal of the non-complying activity class and we have made changes in terms of limiting the rights of appeal on plans because that was an item we had a lot of feedback on. Another change made as a result of the select committee process is the deferral of changes around requiring authorities and that will be looked at in the second phase of reforms. 
Overall a sensible balance has been struck between reducing the bureaucracy and ensuring good processes as well as the ever-important environmental protection. The National-led Government—and I am a proud member of the Bluegreens in the National Party—is committed to looking after our environment. It is so critical that we balance that accurately with encouraging economic growth particularly in the times we are in now. We are putting in place policies to help our local economies and to ensure that we and generations to come can enjoy our unique environment in the future. 
I will take a moment to look at some of the comments that others have made about what we are proposing. Federated Farmers have welcomed the Government’s announcements and support many of the changes to speed up the Resource Management Act process. That comment came from the president of Federated Farmers. Looking at it from the perspective of a regional chamber of commerce Charles Finney has said that streamlining the processes around obtaining resource consents will prove to be a real tonic for economic growth. The New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development has said it is good to have central government taking regulatory leadership that the proposed Resource Management Act process changes will be widely welcomed and that they deserve business and community support. Gary Taylor of the Environmental Defence Society has said that the proposed amendments can be seen as a win for the environment and a win for major infrastructure providers. 
So we can see that this bill is about simplifying and streamlining. I am proud to support this bill. It gets the balance right and the support across the House shows that. It is about protecting the environment while enabling economic growth. I am pleased that this bill delivers both of those aims.