Federated Farmers are welcoming swift action from the Government to urgently clarify discharge consenting provisions in the RMA.

"A recent High Court decision ruling that discharge consents are unlawful has created huge uncertainty for farmers," says Federated Farmers RMA reform spokesperson Mark Hooper.

"Hundreds of consents coming up for renewal would have faced an uncertain future and getting any new consent would have simply been impossible.

"It’s great that the Government have recognised the significance and time sensitivity of this issue, and moved quickly to deliver a pragmatic solution."

Hooper says that without a law change, huge parts of New Zealand’s productive economy would simply grind to a halt.

Environment Canterbury estimate in that in their region alone, 525 consents would be impacted over the next 12 months.

"This whole saga has benefited nobody but resource management lawyers, costing ratepayers millions of dollars, only for the law to be changed," Hooper says.

"It shows just how slow, broken and cumbersome our resource management laws have become.

"New legislation is desperately needed to cut through these litigious processes and return control to local councils to make sensible decisions about resource consents."

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