Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Fitzsimons Jeanette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:619;Page:14886] 
7.  
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for the Environment 
: Does she agree that “the RMA is a very sound basis for resource planning. Relative to the comparable law in other OECD countries it is low cost and easy to negotiate.” and that “The Act has been used as a scapegoat taking the blame for the failure of consent applications which would have been marginal under any system that weighed the various interests fairly and respected natural justice.”? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 Yes. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Why then does the officials’ paper that was released today under the Official Information Act refer to proposals to change Part II “Purpose and Principles” for a more balanced expression of the national interest to change section 6(c) of the purpose and principles which protects biodiversity  and to add a schedule giving guidance on matters of national importance? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I remind the questioner that that policy has not been confirmed. I do draw the member’s attention to the guiding principles governing the Resource Management Act review and they include achieving good environmental outcomes certainty of process and not outcome certainty of cost local decision-making public participation and central government leadership. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: How can she claim with any credibility that this latest Resource Management Act reform package will deal with the serious problems of delays costs and uncertainty when just last year in 2003 the Minister passed an amendment to the Resource Management Act that she said would address those very issues and now we are back again 12 months later trying to tackle the same questions? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: We are always trying to improve the Resource Management Act and I think we always will be. 
David Parker 
: Is the Minister aware of other statements by the Minister of Finance to the Wellington Rotary club about the Resource Management Act? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Yes Dr Cullen said the ideas and principles that underpin the Resource Management Act are not in question. Rather our aim is to get greater certainty and efficiency in the way the Act operates and to make it better able to address larger resource issues that are of national or at least trans-regional importance. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Can the Minister name one new resource-based industry established in New Zealand since the enactment of the Resource Management Act some 13 years ago; if so what is that industry? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Extensions to a variety of aquaculture. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was: “Can the Minister name one new resource-based industry …”. I did not ask about the extension of existing industries. I asked whether there had been one new industry. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister addressed the question. I am not judging the answer; that is for the House to judge. 
Larry Baldock 
: Does the Minister agree that more can be accomplished in improving the implementation of the Resource Management Act by focusing on changes to the process parts of the Act than by making any major changes to the Part II foundations of the Act? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: With the proviso that policy is still being developed I can say that we are identifying a range of solutions to make the Act work better for all New Zealanders. We are assured that we can do that without compromising the environment. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Can the Minister confirm that 4 minutes ago the Government announced that a new 385 megawatt combined-cycle gas turbine plant is to be built at Huntly under the existing Resource Management Act and that it has been successfully consented to? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Gratefully yes. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Who is right: the officials’ paper that was just released which states the purpose and principles will be changed in several ways or her Associate Minister who said on Radio New Zealand this morning that changes to the purpose and principles are neither necessary nor likely? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I would like to remind my honourable colleague over there that the policy is still being developed and debated. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: How is it that this  
RMA Review: Detail of Final Package  
paper was released to the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society including handwritten notes from the Minister’s private secretary of what was and was not to be supported by the Government when normally all such papers are withheld until there is a final Government decision; was that a mistake and if so by whom or is that now standard Government practice? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: It was a response to an Official Information Act request. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister’s response that it was just an Official Information Act request does not answer the question of whether Cabinet normally does not release papers until final decisions are made. This paper was an exception so why was it released to the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society when no other party had received it? I did not get any sort of answer to that. To just refer blandly to an Act does not answer the fundamental question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If the Minister wants to add a little to that she can do so. 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Ministerial offices can have different practices. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Can the Minister confirm that the number of infrastructure projects declined under the Resource Management Act could be counted on one hand while dozens of big projects like power stations mines motorways prisons and poorly designed dumps have got consent; and does that not suggest that the Act needs strengthening and not weakening? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: The Act will be strengthened and will continue to protect the environment. I do not keep a score sheet but I do know that the environment has been protected in New Zealand. The other day we saw two examples of a bridge being put across an area to save some river quality in Auckland. 
Larry Baldock 
: Has the Minister had any reports of how much time it currently takes to process resource consents through the Environment Court and if those reports confirm that long delays at the court are a thing of the past does she agree that direct referral will not be as useful a recommendation as was once thought? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I really appreciate that question because it is worth noting that when I became the Minister for the Environment there was a backlog of more than 3000 cases in the Environment Court. It is now down to 1200. At that time there was also a languishing request for more judges from the Resource Management Law Association and a proposal from National—at the same time that it had a backlog of 3000 cases not enough judges and a poorly resourced court—to load up that poorly resourced court even further. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Now that the backlog in the Environment Court has been massively reduced will the Minister keep her earlier promise to consider again allowing notification decisions to be reviewed by the Environment Court as a check on councils that have been found by the High Court to be illegally shutting people out of the decision so that those people do not face the massive cost of a High Court review which cannot provide redress anyway? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: Although the policy is still being developed at the moment I prefer not to keep on loading the Environment Court; 1200 cases are still too much of a backlog. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: I seek leave of the House to table the Ministry for the Environment  
RMA Review: Detail of Final Package 
 paper that was released exclusively to the Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: Does the Minister see a fundamental difference between the desecration of Jewish grave sites at Makara and the continuing destruction around the country of wahi tapu and urupa and what is her view of the proposal in the paper to further weaken the rights of iwi to participate in the consent process where they are likely to be the only voice in favour of protecting their sacred sites? 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS 
: I agree that we all honour our dead whether at memorials in Greece—as we just heard the other day at the beginning of the Olympic Games—whether they be in wahi tapu or whether they be in our own community cemeteries. I ask for us to be consistent and informed on this issue and I say there is no proposal in this paper to lessen the involvement of iwi or hapu.