The House: Government passes Resource Management Act changes to freshwater

By Louis Collins, The House

Way back in 1991, the then-National government passed the Resource Management Act.

It legislates for the sustainable usage of land, water, and air resources, and is probably the most significant piece of environmental legislation that New Zealand has.

At the time it was groundbreaking, and there hadn't really been a piece of legislation like it in any jurisdiction around the world.

Thirty years later, the idea that the RMA should be reformed or replaced is generally agreed. Where political parties' ideas deviate is how those changes should look.

After years of public consultation and formulation, in 2023 the Labour government enacted the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act to replace the RMA. The existence of the new legislation was transient, both laws were repealed by the current government soon after the election.

The National-led government is now in the thick of passing various pieces of legislation as part of the overall goal to reform the RMA. The government deemed the reforms significant enough to appoint a minister specifically for RMA reform (Chris Bishop).

So far, the Fast-Track Approvals Bill has received the bulk of media and public attention but this week, a less widely traversed but equally significant bill from that suite was approved by Parliament, and now awaits the governor-general's signature.

The Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill passed its third reading on Wednesday.

The bill's stated purpose is to reduce the "regulatory burden" on New Zealand's farming, mining, and other primary industries. Red tape, bureaucracy, needless paperwork, bumbledom, whatever it is called - the removal of "regulatory burden" seems to be the focus for many of the government's policies. Reducing regulations is the remit of an entire ministry.

In May, Bishop, who shepherded the bill through the House, suggested the legislation gave more decision-making power to farmers.

"Getting Wellington out of farming is an important part of our plan to get the economy back on track. We are committed, as a government, to unlocking development and investment in infrastructure, housing, horticulture, aquaculture, forestry, and mining whilst ensuring the environment is protected."

Specifically, this law:

• Excludes the current hierarchy of obligations - as set out in National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) 2020 - from resource consents,
• Aligns the coal mining consenting process with consents for other forms of mining,
• Pauses the requirement for local authorities to identify new Significant Natural Areas,
• Amends a number of farming regulations around winter grazing and stock exclusion zones,
• Restricts the notification of freshwater plans until the current NPS-FM is replaced. Controversially, this was added as an amendment paper late in the Bill's legislative journey.

As the bill was bid farewell at its third reading, remarks were expectedly commendatory from one side of the House.

"The changes in this bill squarely align with the government's view that we should work collaboratively with landowners, rather than further restrict what they can do on their land," National's Penny Simmonds said.

ACT's Andrew Hoggard, himself a former farmer, echoed Simmonds' acclamations.

"I feel a lot of pride, quite frankly, in the fact that I've been part of this bill and in a number of the actions, I've done the work here.

"To me, this is what I came into Parliament for: to bring confidence back to farmers and to show them that there was a way forward and that there was a future for farming in New Zealand. So not only do I commend this bill to the House; I also commend our country's farmers and growers for all the hard work they do."

Steve Abel from the Green Party lamented the bill's passing by weighing up the environmental records of this government, and governments of old.

"Not since Muldoon's National Development Act in 1979 have we had a year of actions by a government that has been so anti-environmental, so bad for the planet.

"This particular legislation is yet another case in point of an extraordinary kind of omnibus of anti-environmental options that they bill as dealing with regulation that is a barrier to business, basically. And that is shorthand for a perception that the environment is what is getting in the way of, as my colleague puts it, their mates making money."

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