Parker DavidSPATIAL PLANNING BILLFirst ReadingHon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I present a legislative statement for the Spatial Planning Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon DAVID PARKER: I move That the Spatial Planning Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Environment Committee to consider this bill too. The Spatial Planning Act (SPA) is a vital part of the new system and provides for the development and implementation of long-term strategic spatial planning across New Zealand regions. This bill the Spatial Planning Bill will work with the Natural and Built Environment Bill read a first time just earlier. In December 2020 when Cabinet agreed to repeal and replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) it set five objectives for the reform: first to protect and restore the natural environment; second to better enable development within biophysical limits stripping out the excessive reference to amenity in the existing statute; third to improve system efficiency and effectiveness and to save time and money; fourth to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi; and fifth to better address risks from climate change and other natural hazards. The Spatial Planning Bill will work in tandem with the Natural and Built Environment Bill to achieve those objectives. Can I thank the members who spoke on the first bill for their contributions. One thing that I thought was common to a number of the submissions from the Opposition was some scrutiny at select committee as to whether there is a need for some priority of clause 5 matters. There is some accorded by clause 58 as well but that's an issue that I look forward to seeing advice from the select committee on.The Spatial Planning Bill will create a more efficient planning system that takes less time and cost. It will cost less; it will better identify where housing and infrastructure will go earlier in the planning cycle. This provides certainty to local and central government as well as to developers and infrastructure providers—enables them better to plan and fund their investments. The Natural and Built Environment Bill will put the detailed policies and rules in place to implement the regional spatial strategies as well as making improvements that mean consents and designations can be delivered more efficiently.Long-term spatial planning aids these objectives. It assists with infrastructure investment land-use planning climate adaptation environmental protection and restoration. This bill requires the creation of regional spatial strategies for each region. They'll set out a vision and objectives for a region's development and change over a 30-year-plus time span and focus on big issues and opportunities facing a region. A regional spatial strategy won't address everything that needs to happen in a region; rather regional planning committees will determine the key issues that need to be addressed in consultation with their community. Where a strategy is not required for the entirety of the region strategic plans can be made at a more localised level.To address concerns from local government that central government agencies are too often uncoordinated and difficult to corral the central government member will be responsible for communicating central government priorities. Over time regional spatial strategies will become a vehicle for the delivery of infrastructure in the right places in the right time. These are needed to provide clear signals to the private sector as well as local government and central government agencies like those responsible for transport and housing. The SPA will also unlock long-stymied development and industries such as aquaculture and ensure that the infrastructure that new industries like aquaculture need—like wharves—is coordinated.Regional spatial strategies will identify in general terms where urban expansion is expected in the future. This will guide decision making by identifying existing and future infrastructure needed to align with long-term regional growth. Infrastructure identified in a regional spatial strategy will be considered against narrower tests at a time a designation is sought leading to efficiency gains. The regional spatial strategy will also identify areas that should be protected from development such as areas with significant biodiversity or highly productive land or areas at risk from sea-level rise. Regional spatial strategies will be accompanied by implementation plans that can set out triggers and key actions for delivery partners to implement along with an approach to monitor and report on delivery. Where appropriate they can be supported by more detailed implementation agreements.The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has suggested to me that the focus of regional spatial strategies should be prescribed to cover only areas that have been identified as key growth areas or areas experiencing environmental pressure and I look forward to feedback from the select committee on that issue too. In summary the Spatial Planning Act will fill a critical gap in the current resource management system by delivering long-term spatial planning across New Zealand regions. Together with the Natural and Built Environment Act this legislation will deliver a resource management system that in contrast to the RMA it replaces will deliver a faster cheaper and better system. In respect of the point that has been made by some submitters as to the length of the statute the new bills—combined—are actually shorter than the existing system—David Seymour: By how much?Hon DAVID PARKER: If you include the codification into the primary statute of the fast-track legislation which is currently separated the bills are about 20 percent shorter. If you want to contrast that with Australia Australia has a similar length primary statute at the federal level plus 600-page state legislature Acts; so their planning provisions are much longer than ours. That's no reason to say that there's nothing to aim for but the legislation here is shorter.I would also make one other point about the idea that comes from the ACT Party that you can rely just about solely on private property rights to sort out these issues. I would point out—David Seymour: It's not the ACT Party's idea at all. Hon DAVID PARKER: Well that was—private property rights and public law rights were the two things that they said they would rely upon and I would contrast that to the position taken by the ACT Party in respect of the three-storeyed medium-density residential zone. I do think that the new system will have outcomes that are better for the provision of housing as well as the provision of infrastructure. I'm interested in hearing submissions as to how these things knit together—the SPA and the NBA—and I commend the bill to the House.