Parker DavidRESOURCE MANAGEMENT AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): I move That the Resource Management Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Our resource management and planning system has been underperforming in its management of our built and natural environment—for example in freshwater quality and another example is in meeting the needs of our people for affordable housing and thriving urban communities. In short the Resource Management Act (RMA) takes too long costs too much and has not been delivering for the environment which is a pretty damning indictment of its overall performance.This bill is the first part of the Government's efforts to deliver a better resource management system which should support a productive sustainable and inclusive economy. While the Government has commenced a broader review of the RMA and that report will be delivered soon there are steps which need to be taken now and this bill makes improvements to the RMA that should not await that longer and wider review. I would add for the sake of clarity that this bill is also separate from the fast-track legislation before the House which is currently before a select committee.The bill we are considering today includes provisions to improve freshwater quality. The bill introduces a new freshwater planning process that ensures regional council plans are updated as soon as possible and in a manner consistent with Te Mana o te Wai. Under current processes freshwater plans needed to give effect to the last Government's 2017 national policy statement (NPS) will not be in place for many councils until 2030 or thereafter. That's more than 13 years after the NPS was promulgated and I think parties across all sides of the House—and regional government—agree that that's too long. The changes will enable the new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management to be implemented much faster.After the onset of COVID-19 the Government introduced a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) to this bill to move the date by which councils must notify their new freshwater plans. This extended that deadline from 31 December 2023 which was already tight to 31 December 2024. This will provide councils communities iwi etc. an additional 12 months to meet the planned notification time frame. The bill will also restore public participation opportunities including removing some preclusions to notificatin and appeal. It also respects council autonomy by repealing excessive regulation-making powers that were introduced by the last Government which enabled the Minister for the Environment to override council rules. The bill also contains important changes to support councils in their role of enforcing the RMA and their district or regional plans. Maximum infringement fees will be increased and the current six-month statutory limitation period for taking prosecutions will be extended to 12 months. The bill also provides the Environmental Protection Authority enforcement units with information-gathering powers to assist councils to investigate incidents and at times to take lead investigative roles from councils if and when necessary.Can I thank the select committee for its efforts. After considering many detailed submissions on the bill the Environment Committee proposed amendments perhaps the most important of which was the enabling of decision makers to consider climate change mitigation under the RMA. As it stands the RMA doesn't allow local authorities to consider greenhouse gas emissions in plan making or consenting. In response to submissions on both the zero carbon Act and the Resource Management Amendment Bill this bill formally links the RMA and the zero carbon Act through requiring RMA decision makers to consider the emission reduction plans and national adaptation plans that must be published under the zero carbon Act.The bill also removes the prohibition on councils that currently prohibits them considering climate change mitigation under RMA consent applications. The bill as reported back had that effect from 31 December 2021 by which date the first emissions reduction plan will be gazetted. However the Government introduced a post-COVID SOP to provide some flexibility to extend this date by Order in Council if required. This is because it is crucial that we have national direction in respect of climate-changing emissions consideration under the RMA in place before councils can consider climate change mitigation. The bill as amended includes a backstop deadline of 30 November 2022 which is when the first national adaptation plan must be gazetted by. This is to ensure that council consideration of climate change mitigation cannot be delayed indefinitely. In the meantime applications that are called in and referred to a board of inquiry before the Environment Court by the Minister for the Environment can on a case-by-case basis take greenhouse gas emissions into account if the Minister so directs in the referral.Returning to water issues further provisions were included by the select committee to enable regulations to restrict stock access to water body margins which will allow for efficient protection against erosion and sedimentation of our rivers and estuaries. The bill will also allow changes to regional policy statements to be called in and directed to a board of inquiry or the Environment Court for decision. Through Supplementary Order Paper the bill also introduces several measures that support the implementation of the recently announced package around healthy waterways pursuant to the Essential Freshwater programme. This is in addition to the new freshwater planning process.The development of mandatory and enforceable farm environment plans will now be provided for in the RMA. The Government recognises that we can't tackle all environmental issues via national standards—farm plans will be needed. Making farm plans mandatory and enforceable is widely supported by regional councils and farming peak organisations and it will help lift environmental performance. These farm plans will contain individualised measures tailored to each farm. Farmers and growers will develop farm plans that identify the actions they intend to take to support the improvement of water quality and ecosystem health. We know that many farmers and growers are implementing good farm practices and achieving improved environmental outcomes. Farm plans will help lift others to similar outcomes and will be phased in over time beginning with highly impacted nitrogen-enriched catchments. In respect of reporting of fertiliser use it's of interest that nitrogenous fertiliser use has increased by about 700 percent in New Zealand since 1990 and in some ways it's a proxy for the more intensive land use that's put pressure on our waterways. To ensure that the Essential Freshwater package is delivering real results the Government will also now monitor and annually report on the use of nitrogen fertiliser regionally across New Zealand. Sales data from the major sellers is considered a good indicator of fertiliser use on a regional basis and is reasonably cheap to collect. Existing powers under the RMA don't currently allow for this type of information to be collected by central government and an SOP achieves this. This reporting goes slightly further than that required under the Climate Change Response Act and voluntary measures already undertaken by the Fertiliser Association. The Minister for Climate Change and I will ensure that future reporting aligns and is not unnecessarily complex.The next step in reforming New Zealand's resource management system is the most comprehensive review in 30 years and I'm looking forward to receiving the review panel's report at the end of this month. The panel led by retired Court of Appeal Judge Tony Randerson QC will include major proposals for reform including drafting of key legislative provisions. In the meantime the RMA will be improved by amendments in this bill. Critics of the RMA—and I acknowledge the Hon Scott Simpson's contribution in this regard at the committee stage—note that it's currently at least twice its original length. This bill strips out some of the verbiage including the lengthy provisions inserted by the last Government to codify collaborative planning processes. That tortured set of provisions was unnecessary has never been used and is repealed by this bill. It's for these reasons that I commend the bill to the House.