Wednesday, 10 February 2021, 5:17 pm
The Government has signalled its intention to scrap the
30-year-old Resource Management Act (RMA) and replace it
with three new pieces of legislation.
Comprising more
than 800 pages, the RMA is one of the most complex pieces of
law in New Zealand. The three new acts to replace it would
be the Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA), the
Strategic Planning Act, and the Climate Change Adaptation
Act. The announcement follows an independent
review of the RMA last year.
The SMC asked experts
to comment on this
announcement.
Professor Troy
Baisden, Environmental Research Institute, University of
Waikato, comments:
Put simply, says Taylor, the RMA is at the heart of national strategy. Its job is to set the balance between our economic ambitions and environmental limits. That means whatever replaces it will affect everything. Guy Salmon, of Nelson’s “blue-green” think tank, Ecologic – a member of the RMA’s original independent panel 30 years ago – says it could be New Zealand’s true coming of age moment.
supplied
The Resource Management Act: After many patches and revisions, finally time to just replace it. The country might get around the table and figure out how to actually live within sustainable limits. Or, of course, it could all dissolve into the most unholy political bunfight.