Iona Pannett – Wellington City Councillor

Media release

3rd February 2009

RMA changes: good news for bad developers   

Changes signalled to the Resource Management Act (RMA) today by the Government are the green light Wellington road builders and bad developers have been waiting for, says Wellington City Councillor Iona Pannett.

“It is clear that the government’s agenda is to make it easier for the road builders and developers to push through yet more projects bad for the environment”, said Cr Pannett. “This is exactly what Wellington does not need, given the City Council’s commitment to sustainability and carbon neutrality.   

“Furthermore, attempts to limit the rights of communities to have a say in the resource consent process at a time when our community is saying it wants more input is very worrying.  Rather, we should be expanding the right of communities to have a say, not limiting it.   

“The creation of an Environmental Protection Agency could potentially be beneficial for the environment, but given its raison d’être is to make it easier for large scale projects such as the Basin Reserve Flyover or Transmission Gully to get the green light, this is unlikely.  Limiting the process to nine months would also steamroll debate,” said Cr Pannett.

The RMA has been described as a handbrake by the Prime Minister, but that should be seen as a positive thing, rather than a negative.  It has gone some way to helping protect our environment; Waterfront Watch’s successful appeal against the Hilton Hotel on Wellington’s waterfront is one such example,” said
Cr Pannett.

ends

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