Smith Nick: Resource Management and Electricity Legislation Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Smith Nick: Resource Management and Electricity Legislation Amendment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:22325] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 It will be helpful at this time in the debate to recite the sorry history of this Government’s approach to resource management law. Six years ago Labour’s very first act as a Government was to kill off a very constructive bill Simon Upton’s Resource Management Amendment Bill. At that time Labour Ministers said that the Resource Management Act was all honky-dory that it was beautifully crafted and beautifully written and that things were all just going very well. Well is it not interesting that in the very last act of this dying rotten Government it has to revisit the cock-ups it made 6 years ago? In fact it is interesting to note that over 12 of the changes in this bill are straight out of the amendments proposed by Simon Upton over 6 years ago. 
I have been waiting patiently to hear a Government Minister get to his or her feet and apologise for stuffing things up and admit the Government got things wrong put people to extra costs stopped roads from being built to deal with congestion and stopped power stations being built. I have been waiting to hear a Minister say the Government has added millions of dollars of cost to people and that he or she is sorry it got things wrong. But no this arrogant Government does not know the word “sorry”. Its members will use whatever trick they like in order to try to avoid scrutiny of their mistakes. 
I want to note for instance that the big change that the Minister in the chair David Benson-Pope promised in this bill was to get rid of de novo hearings in the Environment Court and everybody said that he had got that wrong. Even in February the Minister in the chair was saying no he had got that right and it would work really well. But that provision has disappeared. He has had to concede that his most important reform in this bill was a dog and appropriately it has gone. 
What is really worrying is the lost opportunity with regard to this bill. Every New Zealander knows that a shambles is going on in respect of Maori consultation and the Resource Management Act but we hope that a Government will be able to see through that. We hope that a Government will be able to cut through that nonsense and let New Zealanders get on with creating the wealth the jobs and the infrastructure needed for our country to go forward. [ 
Interruption 
] But the sad reality I tell Mr Cosgrove is that we will still have the Environment Court chasing the home of the taniwha because of the PC brigade like that member of the Labour Party. 
 I was driving through Waimakariri last week and what is really interesting about Clayton Cosgrove’s hoardings was that there was no mention of the Labour Party. The Labour Party just was not there. I can remember that; I can believe that. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: You can’t read. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Did I not take my microscope? Does one need a telescope to be able to find the tiny little Labour logo on his hoardings? I do not blame Clayton Cosgrove. If I was a member of the Labour Party I would be deeply embarrassed at the mess-up that Labour has made in respect of the Act. This bill will just make the problems of cost uncertainty and delays with the Act worse. 
But there is good news. The good news is that help is on the way. In a few weeks’ time New Zealanders will reject this rotten decaying Government and employ people with the wherewithal to get on and make the changes that are needed so that we can fix the transport problems in Auckland provide security of electricity for our homes and businesses and let farmers get on with creating wealth for this country without the politically correct nonsense that Labour would impose on them. The reform of the Act is absolutely critical to New Zealand’s well-being. We more than any other country depend on the smart use of our resources to create wealth. We want to be able to provide the sorts of changes that will make New Zealand prosper.