Gilmore Aaron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGilmore Aaron: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9432. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.AARON GILMORE (National) to theMinister for the Environment: What recent reports has she seen on the impact of the Resource Management Act 1991 on business investment in New Zealand?Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment): Earlier this week Statistics New Zealand published its 2012 Business Operations Survey. It shows that in the last 2 years hundreds of New Zealand businesses have cancelled projects worth potentially $800 million to our economy due mostly not to the standards that they have to meet but to the uncertainty and the long time frames in the Act. It also shows that of the businesses that identified the Resource Management Act as a constraint 87 percent of these were small and medium enterprises showing that it is our mum and dadcompanies that bear the brunt of these problems. More than half of the cancelled projects were cancelled in the pre-application stage or well before even receiving a decision.Aaron Gilmore: Why should we be concerned about the impact of the Resource Management Act on investment?Hon AMY ADAMS: The uncertainty within the Resource Management Act means businesses and developers are reluctant to invest in projects to extend and expand their operations and are potentially scaling back projects that might otherwise have been more ambitious. The impacts of this are real. The delays and uncertainties mean new jobs are not being created houses are more expensive and communities have no idea what to expect in their neighbourhoods. Unnecessary costs are borne by every single New Zealander in one way or another.Te Ururoa Flavell: Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātou katoa. Would the Minister agree with Whanganui iwi that “the voice of the environment is being overtaken by the economy” in her Resource Management Act reforms; if not why not?Hon AMY ADAMS: No I do not agree with that statement. The greatest gains for business are very clearly those that come from creating more certainty and making the processes easier to comply with. It is not about lowering standards; it is about having clearer rules about what you can do and where you can do it. If this House is genuinely interested in creating jobs and creating opportunities then I am hopeful that it will back me in making proposals that make it easier for new jobs to be created for new opportunities to be created and for New Zealanders to get ahead.Aaron Gilmore: How will the Government’s proposed reforms to the Resource Management Act led by that Minister help to increase investment?Hon AMY ADAMS: With a lack of certainty around outcomes and time frames being a key barrier to investment we are proposing a number of reforms to the Resource Management Act to address these issues—for example clearer national guidance reducing time frames for processing consents and collaborative planning to create more robust solutions. Providing that sort of greater certainty will lead to more jobs and more affordable housing for New Zealanders.