Dean Jacqui: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDean Jacqui: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8480. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): I regard it as a gift to be able to follow that speaker Sue Moroney in this general debate and to say how proud I am to be part of a Government that is focused on the things that matter to New Zealand that is focused on the economy and in the instance that I want to talk about today that is focused on reform of the Resource Management Act. And it was truly a gift—truly a gift—for that member to cry crocodile tears about her view that this Government has taken no action on the housing crisis so-called in Auckland when in fact Minister Nick Smith has done little else over the last 2 years but focus on the issues around strong economy and strong growth in Auckland. The number of measures that that Minister has taken together with this Government to tackle the need to provide for more housing is legion.But I just want to focus on one aspect of that and it is in this second tranche of Resource Management Act reform which will in fact provide for planning processes to allow speedier more effective consenting to provide for housing in district plans. And that Mr Speaker and members of the Opposition who do not quite understand the Resource Management Act will go a significant way into providing speedier more cost-effective consenting and the provision of land designation to allow for housing to be built in Auckland. And that is on top of the other provisions that this Government has brought in for Auckland housing like special housing areas which are beginning to bear fruit.You see one of the problems that Opposition members have with housing is that they seem to think they can just say “We’re going to build 800000 homes in the next 10 years.” and they think if they click their fingers and wave their magic wand it will be so. Unfortunately in the real world planning conditions have to be placed around that. We have been faced with a local authority that has been determined to impose a city limit. It has imposed so many restrictive covenants on development in Auckland that it has been a large body of work to enable the planning framework that then in turn enables the consenting and construction of housing let alone the work this Government has entered into in the realm of social housing which also has been significant.I want to return to the Resource Management Act and the second tranche of reform that this Government is introducing. I want to refer also to what we fondly called the The loopy rules report: New Zealanders tell their stories which was a large body of work undertaken by a group of New Zealanders who travelled the length and breadth of New Zealand; who consulted with thousands of people many sectors local authorities and industry groups; and who discovered when listening to New Zealanders that the Resource Management Act comprised about a third of the complaints we heard around how difficult it was and can be to do business in New Zealand because of what they told us were loopy rules. The loopy rules report recommended 10 top fixes amongst our many recommendations and some of those related to the Resource Management Act. I am so pleased that this Government under Minister Nick Smith has picked up on those recommendations made in The loopy rules report.We did recommend that as part of the Resource Management Act reforms the Government eliminate the need for resource consents for minor and technical breaches which cause so much consternation for homeowners and property developers. I am so pleased to see those provisions picked up in this Resource Management Act reform bill. We recommended the introduction of faster more flexible processes for changing plans under the Resource Management Act. I am so pleased that this Government and this Minister have chosen to pick up on that recommendation and have proposed two new ways of plan changes and of streamlining the planning processes. I am pleased to see that a collaborative planning regime is going to be brought in by this Government.I know from the work that we undertook on another piece of work in the Mackenzie Agreement that collaboration works. It is a bright beacon for the future and it should be supported by this House. I am very much in favour of the Resource Management Act changes. I think it is a good piece of work by a progressive Government.