Communities are not being given the opportunity to engage sufficiently with what are complex and significant reforms, says Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise.

Regional mayors, including Napier’s own, are astounded that submissions on two significant bills are spanning the Christmas shutdown and busy summer holiday period.

Councils are being asked to provide feedback on The Natural and Built Environment Bill and the Spatial Planning Bill which are integral to the reform of the Resource Management Act. Government’s Environment Committee is inviting submissions from 23 November 2022 to 30 January 2023.

Napier Mayor Kirsten Wise said the fact that this was taking place over the Christmas period was “just appalling”.

“We all know here in New Zealand we tend to shut down across Christmas and the new year. People want to spend time with their whanau, especially after the last few years we’ve had. Everyone is looking forward to a bit of a break, so to put those timeframes in place, it’s completely unrealistic to expect Councils and the community to engage at that time of year.”

While the eight-week period was “probably” reasonable, this was a huge piece of legislative change. It was very complex and there was a lot of analysis and work to be done for a comprehensive submission to be made, she said

Wise said the sentiment was shared by other mayors. The sentiment expressed at a recent Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) Zone 3 meeting, was that the timing was a sign that central government had little interest in the views of elected members and communities.

Co-chairs Mayors Andy Watson and Craig Little said in a statement that the Resource Management Act was a huge piece of legislation and under the reforms the current proposal was to replace the RMA with one major piece of legislation, the Natural and Built Environments Act (NBA), and two more minor pieces of legislation: the Spatial Planning Act (SPA) and the Climate Adaptation Act (CAA). 

“The two bills have been three years in the making and it does not make sense to now rush the submission period over the busiest time of the year,” they said.

Not only were newly elected councillors just getting up to speed in their roles, the bills were a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get the legislation right and represented a significant change in how we manage the environment.

“The public need to know the levels of pressure central government is putting on local government,” they said.

In a statement Environment Minister David Parker, who is responsible for the bill, said the submissions period was a matter for the select committee, not the Minister.

The bills had been well signalled and widely consulted, as much as any other policy change, and the proposals would not come as a surprise to anyone because a panel report on the changes had been sent to every councillor in the country in 2020, he said.

“The panel drew on reviews by the Productivity Commission, the OECD, Local Government NZ, and the Environmental Defence Society supported by the Employers and Manufacturing Association, the Property Council and Infrastructure NZ. There were also contributions by the Waitangi Tribunal and the Tax Working Group.

“Advisory Groups such as the Local Government Steering Group (set up in September 2021 to advise the Government on the reforms), iwi, infrastructure and development groups, ENGOs, the NZ Planning Institute, Resource Management lawyers, and others were regularly involved.”

Wise said lobbying from LGNZ to extend the consultation period had been ignored.

“Ironically, here at NCC, maybe five or six years ago now we lost a judicial review on Easter Sunday trading hours because we consulted over the Christmas break. Part of the judgement was that it was unreasonable to expect people and organisations to engage over the Christmas period. It wasn’t best practice for a consultation,” she noted.

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