RMA change may fast track national projects

By Chris Hutching

Friday 8th October 2004

Property developers who believe the government's resource management reforms amount to little more than tinkering might be heartened by the view of Forest & Bird that a list of projects has been compiled for fast tracking once the legislation is passed.

Forest & Bird claims to have discovered a cabinet paper that lists roads, prisons, coal mines and hydro dams that could all be fast-tracked under the proposed reforms.

The projects include Trustpower's controversial proposed hydroelectric scheme for the Wairau River in Marlborough, coal field development on the West Coast, a Fonterra-proposed 250 megawatt coal-fired power plant, a 650-bed prison in the eastern Bay of Plenty, Auckland's eastern corridor, and Carter Holt Harvey's proposed wood processing facility in Whangarei.

The list of major projects which are possible candidates for the new "non local decision making" (fast-track) proposals in the RMA reforms is from a draft cabinet paper, dated June 24, 2004, under the Ministry for the Environment letterhead, according to Forest & Bird.

A discussion paper launched by associate Environment Minister David Benson-Pope recently outlined what the RMA changes seek to achieve.

The proposals include giving more ministry guidance for national policy statements and national environmental standards, speedier and more comprehensible district plans, reducing time and costs obtaining consents, more certainty about consultation, more skilled consent hearing commissioners and improved resource allocation by local authorities.

The proposed solutions include providing more flexibility for the government to intervene when issues have a national perspective. The changes propose that the government could fund an independent project co-ordinator, direct that applications be heard jointly by the different councils involved, appoint a person to the hearing panel, develop a system of government submissions or call in the application.

Priority will be given to existing investment where there is an application to renew a consent involving allocation of a resource; regional plans will be able to specify that discharge permits can be transferred; there will be a default rule that consent holders will have their application for renewal heard before a new, competing application for the same resource; and the Minister for the Environment will be able to require that a council develop a plan to address a specific resource management issue.

A proposed change to Environment Court hearings would mean the court will generally focus on the pre-defined issues (based on local council decisions) and existing evidence unless there are special reasons for hearing a case anew.

Council consent panels will be required to include people who are accredited, meaning they will have received training in hearings processes and other RMA matters.

Another significant change is a requirement to consult with iwi at the outset but not frequently throughout the process.

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