The Taxpayers’ Union is today welcoming the news that National is joining the ACT Party in its commitment to repeal the Government’s replacement to the Resource Management Act if it is passed before the election.

The announcement comes as a Taxpayers’ Union – Curia poll undertaken earlier this month showed strong opposition to the Government’s planning proposals. 48% of respondents believed that planning rules should be set by local councils compared with just 26% who preferred that these rules be set by the proposed regional planning committees. 26% of respondents were unsure.

The full results and demographic breakdowns are available here.

Reacting to National’s announcement, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“This is great news for the future of local democracy. We need to ensure that we have a resource management system that is fit for purpose, drives productivity, and makes it easier for people to get things done rather than tying them up in even more red tape and bureaucracy.

“Our nationwide roadshow raised public awareness of just how bad these reforms would be. We demonstrated to politicians that there was strong public opposition to these reforms, which would lead to higher building costs, more red tape, no local control and more co-governance.

“What is particularly interesting is that supporters of all parties and across all demographics – with the exception of Wellingtonians – had more people wanting planning rules to be set by elected local councils than by the Government’s proposed regional planning committees.

“We call on the Government to listen to their own voters who recognize that these reforms are a bad idea. The Government needs to withdraw these bills and restart the RMA reform process after the election with a replacement that prioritizes local control, certainty, simplicity and private property rights.”

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