Council urges local government involvement during select committee submission

Waikato Regional Council has this afternoon [Friday, 3 September] urged the Environment Select Committee to involve local government in development of a national planning framework.

The committee is considering submissions on the Inquiry on the Natural and Built Environments Bill: Parliamentary Paper and how the Government’s objectives for resource management reform would be achieved by it.

“Management of the Waikato region is complex,” Waikato regional councillor and Strategy and Policy Committee Chair Pamela Storey told the committee. “It is essential the new legislation assists with managing the myriad of resource management issues associated with the future sustainability of our region to support our regional, and national, communities.”

Cr Storey said with the other reforms proposed by central government it was complicated to fully understand the institutional and iwi partner arrangements necessary for local government to be able to successfully implement new legislation.

“We consider the ability of local voices to have input to the planning, management and use of resources in the natural and built environment is vital.”

It was also essential for the Waikato region that the resource management reforms make the improvements in outcomes sought by the government, she said. “We generally support any proposed changes if the outcome makes it clearer for how the wellbeing of current and future generations can be achieved whilst protecting the environment.”

Chris McLay, Waikato Regional Council’s Chief Executive, warned the committee that a significant amount of change would be required to implement new legislation along the lines of that proposed in the exposure draft, including for public service organisations, professional practitioners, resource users and developers.

“The change process needs to be carefully considered and planned pre implementation, and we suggest guidance developed by central government has input and influence from those required to implement the Act,” he told the committee.

In particular, guidance should be included for transitional arrangements for policy developers and existing consent holders, as well as the implications a new planning framework or environmental limits might have for them.  

“To that end, it would be useful to include local government in the development of a national planning framework,” he said.

Mr McLay urged the Government to release the national planning framework prior to commencement of regional plans because retrofitting “is both costly and difficult”.

He added that tools such as state of environment monitoring, consenting, compliance monitoring and enforcement and other nonregulatory instruments have been important for implementation of the Resource Management Act. “Without details on how these will apply in the exposure draft, it is difficult to comment on implementability of the matters currently being considered.”

During the virtual oral submission, Mr McLay pointed to the many iwi groups in the Waikato region, adding that the “importance of these relationships cannot be underestimated”.  

There are Crown settlements with iwi that result in joint management arrangements which are used for implementing the current Resource Management Act, and others are still in negotiation, he said.

“There is also Te Ture Whaimana o Te Awa o Waikato, the Vision and Strategy for the Waikato River. No other document of this kind exists in the country and where there may be inconsistency between national direction and the Vision and Strategy, it will be the Vision and Strategy that prevails,” Mr McLay said.

Cr Storey wrapped up the council’s submission by talking about the region’s $500 million worth of flood infrastructure that’s “critical to the protection of communities and ongoing productive capacity of land”.

“Much of this infrastructure was put in by central government over 50 years ago. There is potential conflict between the purposes of the Act and some infrastructural services that may need direction to help determine the balance between positive outcomes for communities that don’t always provide positive outcomes for the environment. We look forward to further input.”