1. Question No. 1—EnvironmentRACHEL BROOKING (Labour) to the Minister for the EnvironmentORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSQuestion No. 1—Environment1. RACHEL BROOKING (Labour) to the Minister for the Environment: What progress has the Government made on reforming the resource management system?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Today the Government introduced the Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill that will repeal the Resource Management Act (RMA) addressing the long-standing problems with the current system while saving Kiwis billions of dollars. Successive Governments have failed to deliver comprehensive resource management reform. More than 20 major amendments and thousands of minor ones since the RMA was introduced have increased complexity. Reform is overdue. Everyone is frustrated—environmentalists developers councils farmers home builders—and there is cross-party support for the need to repeal and replace the RMA.Rachel Brooking: How will resource management be streamlined by repeal and replacement of the RMA?Hon DAVID PARKER: More than 100 RMA plans will reduce to 15 regional-level plans across the country. The time taken to prepare them will reduce from about 10 years under the current system to a maximum of four years. Off-the-shelf standards for housing and infrastructure projects will remove the need for bespoke specification for each project making future infrastructure and housing easier and cheaper to consent. Developers infrastructure providers and businesses will see the largest cost savings as consent volumes and costs decrease saving hundreds of millions of dollars a year.Rachel Brooking: How much is the repeal and replacement of the RMA estimated to reduce costs by?Hon DAVID PARKER: Unduly restrictive planning restraints have contributed to New Zealand's urban land and housing prices being amongst the least affordable in the OECD. The new resource management system will deliver economic and environmental benefits. For every dollar spent in the new system it's expected that there will be benefits of between $2.58 and $4.90. On a conservative estimate cost to users will fall by 19 percent or $149 million per annum equal to more than $10 billion cost savings over a year plus savings in housing plus better environmental outcomes. Rachel Brooking: How will the replacement for the RMA better protect the environment?Hon DAVID PARKER: The most significant change to environmental protection will be a shift from an effects-based approach to one that is based on outcomes. Put simply an effects-based approach has allowed many small adverse effects to accumulate into significant environmental degradation—most notably with water quality and the loss of biodiversity and topsoil. The Natural and Built Environment Bill will focus on outcomes setting limits to maintain current environmental levels and targets where degradation needs to be restored. Hon Eugenie Sage: Does he believe that urban trees that provide habitats for wildlife improve air quality provide shade and reduce the urban heat island effect are essential to the liveability of our cities and if so why are there no strong controls in the Natural and Built Environment Bill to protect urban trees?Hon DAVID PARKER: In respect of the first part of the question yes. There are improvements in the bill but we're not going back to the status quo ante where you had to get a resource consent to prune a tree. Simon Court: Can the Minister explain simply what the pivotal clause 3(b) recognise and uphold te Oranga o te Taiao" will mean for people trying to build homes?Hon DAVID PARKER: It won't really directly affect that.Rachel Brooking: What are the next steps for repealing and replacing the RMA?Hon DAVID PARKER: Next week the two bills will have their first readings and they'll be sent to the Environment Committee for a full six-month consideration. This will be a further opportunity for the public and committee members to scrutinise the bills in detail following on from consideration of the exposure draft of the Natural and Built Environment Bill earlier this term. It adds to the Randerson panel's outreach multiple earlier reports from the Productivity Commission the Waitangi Tribunal Local Government New Zealand Environmental Defence Society the Employers and Manufacturers Association Infrastructure New Zealand and the Property Council. Following the select committee process it is the Government's intention to pass the bills into law by the end of this parliamentary term and finally repeal and replace the RMA."