Yesterday, the Government released more details on its proposed reform of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) following the delivery of a blueprint from the Expert Advisory Group earlier this year. In releasing the details, Minister Bishop said it will be a "radical transition to a far more liberal planning system with less red tape". That will be welcome news for many in the development community, if the Government can indeed deliver a workable legislative framework to achieve that outcome, and particularly if it can be enduring.
So, what will this new system look like? Building on its announcement last year to introduce two new pieces of legislation, the Government has now confirmed this will comprise:
- The Planning Act - focused on controlling the use and development of land.
- The Natural Environment Act - focused on the use, protection and enhancement of the natural environment.
While the "dual act" approach bears similarities to Labour's attempt to reform the RMA and might not seem so radical on its face, a key difference with the current Government's proposal is that property rights will be at the "core" of the new system. In practice, the Government has signalled that this will mean:
- There will be a presumption that land use is enabled unless there is a significant impact on the natural environment or on a person's ability to use their own land.
- More permitted activities.
- Greater protection for lawfully established existing uses, including the potential for reasonable expansion of activities where the site is "zoned or owned".
Given the proposal for a more enabling framework, we expect there is also going to be a need to better manage land use compatibility. Otherwise, there could be significant challenges for infrastructure providers, industry and other effects generating activities. These tensions are not new. The challenge will be how to reconcile them when embedding the new property-rights focused approach.
Echoing the earlier design features of the new system (read our insight for more information), other key features of the new system include:
- One set of national policy direction under each Act consistent with their focus (e.g. direction under the Natural Environment Act will cover freshwater, indigenous biodiversity and coastal policy while direction under the Planning Act will cover urban development, infrastructure and natural hazards).
- A clearer basis for setting environmental limits to provide certainty as to where development occur.
- A requirement for combined plans and for each region to have a spatial plan.
- More standardisation, including nationalised land use zones.
While there has been consensus that reform of the RMA is necessary, the promise of reform comes with a sense of déjà vu. The Government has acknowledged there is a large programme of work to introduce the new legislation, which it is proposing to do before the end of this year so that the new legislation can be enacted before the next election.
With the next election in mind, a key question is whether this latest reform will endure beyond the current Government term. That would certainly provide New Zealanders with some certainty as to the road ahead, after multiple years of reform and uncertainty from multiple governments. Given the intended "radical" nature of the reforms, our view is that seems unlikely.