Judith Collins - Infrastructure, Planning (RMA Reform)

9 November 2018

Every New Zealander who has sought a resource consent has a tale of being bogged down in red tape, delays and soaring compliance costs and will be asking why David Parker wants to make it worse, National’s Planning (RMA Reform) spokesperson Judith Collins says.

“The Environment Minister has revealed his ambitions include turning the Resource Management Act into a vehicle for tackling climate change.

“Adding another consideration to the RMA will just mean one more reason to stop anything being built in New Zealand.

“The RMA already provides regional councils with powers to consider climate change for consents on renewable energy generation. Do we really want councils to be given broad new powers to block developments?

“Reducing global greenhouse gas emissions is a complex economic and scientific issue that won’t be well managed by regional councils. They simply don’t have the expertise, capacity or frankly the money to do it.

“New Zealand already has a mechanism for addressing New Zealand’s emissions. It’s called the Emissions Trading Scheme. We are also currently negotiating a bipartisan and independent Climate Change Commission

“This Government has crowed about its climate change credentials but its track record to date has been big on hot air and short on credibility, including its ban on offshore oil and gas exploration.

“I have committed to introducing new legislation next year to replace the RMA. New Zealand needs bold solutions to a law that has proven to be a planning nightmare. The last thing that we need is new layers of red tape.”

ends

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