Goudie Sandra: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5516] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (NZ National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I would like to carry on from my esteemed colleague Nick Smith. He presented the case very clearly with regard to the poor process of this bill. It is an absolute shocker. It has completely denied the people the opportunity to make submissions on a very significant part of the bill—that is the heritage provisions. Those provisions are really far-reaching given that they now include ancestral landscapes cultural landscapes and—that ever-faithful from Labour—the spiritual definition as well. 
Could the Minister please define the area around cultural landscape? What does the Minister mean by “cultural landscape” and “ancestral landscape”? It also includes all of those areas surrounding cultural and ancestral landscapes. What piece of land in the country is actually exempt from being able to be held up through a resource consent process by this one definition that was not in the previous bill? That particular definition of heritage now affects every single piece of land in the country. I would go further and say that it also covers the marine environment. Is the marine environment included as part of those cultural and ancestral landscapes and can it be made to be included in that definition? As it is pretty broad we can have it mean whatever we want it to mean. Any objector to a resource consent can now hold up that consent on that basis for any length of time. The chief executive officer of the Ministry for the Environment said that extortion was just pub talk. We can give members plenty of examples—and some have already been given here tonight—where that is not the case. It is not just pub talk. The examples are out there in reality and they are very numerous. This particular definition will have significant effects. 
People have not had a chance to make submissions to this bill because the Government has denied them that opportunity. We have plenty of submissions from people and I have read one out tonight. Here is another one from the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society thanking the committee of Nick Smith Ken Shirley and Jim Peters for recognising the importance of public participation in relation to this important area of law. The society has recognised that there needs to be an opportunity to make submissions to this bill because of the very significant changes from the previous bill but having gone through a considerable process at the 11th hour it has been all for nought and a complete waste of time. That is one submission saying thank you very much for recognising the society’s concerns about the denial of its right to make submissions to this bill—particularly to the heritage provisions and definitions which have been changed and are not the same as the previous bill. This is an incredibly important piece of legislation. 
I also have another submission here from Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu. It states: “If the Government passes the amendment to the Resource Management Act it will derogate from the public’s right to participate in decision-making. The Resource Management Act is New Zealand’s most significant environmental legislation and you have denied them the right to participate.” The Minister has called this bill a child of democracy but we have all these submissions stating that people have been denied the right to make submissions. The heritage provisions in the first part of this bill are a significant change and you have denied people the right to make submissions to them. 
That particular provision will be the result of the backlog of consents for every single project going and for the important roading infrastructure we need in this country which is absolutely vital. We will spend more money on consultation process and delays as a result of that particular definition and because the Minister could not get her act together to allow people the right to make submissions and have that full democratic process accordedthem. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Before I call the next person can I just say to the previous speaker—who is a new member and I did not want to interrupt her speech—that she used the word “you” on several occasions. That is not in order.