2 June 2016

Time to Withdraw Resource Management Legislation

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says the Government should withdraw its Resource Management Bill, currently before Parliament.

He says today’s National Policy Statement on Housing makes the Bill redundant.

“Affordable housing provision has been the Government’s real priority since it began talking about changes to the Resource Management Act over three years ago.

“Only now does it seem to be cutting to the chase.

“In the meantime, the Bill currently before the House goes way beyond the housing issue, traversing completely separate issues like water management and wider regional planning.

“Because the Bill is seen as a wholesale attack on the Resource Management Act, it is struggling to gain support.

“Many of the submissions on the Bill to the select committee are critical of various aspects of it, and two of the Government’s three support partners – UnitedFuture and ACT are opposing it as it stands.

“Even the Maori Party’s support is conditional – it is seeking greater Iwi involvement in water management issues than the Bill currently provides, or the government seems willing to consider – and has not agreed to support the Bill at this stage.

“So there is real doubt the Government will even be able to pass it, which may be the reason the select committee’s timetable has been extended at least three months,” Mr Dunne says.

Mr Dunne says today’s National Policy Statement, and the ongoing work by the Productivity Commission are the real focus of the Government’s activity in the housing area.

“The Government’s efforts need to be dedicated more fully to the provision of affordable housing, especially but not exclusively in Auckland, and are being diluted by its attempts to make wholesale changes to the Resource Management Act.

“It should therefore dump the Bill altogether, and get on with making the National Policy Statement, made under the Resource Management Act as it stands, work, if it is serious about making progress on housing,” Mr Dunne says.

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