Time to have our say on Resource Management reform

The Government says this reform will create a faster, cheaper and more efficient system but we have some reservations about that. 

We’re also disappointed to see Environment Minister David Parker’s comments about council planning departments being part of the problem. We know that planners are constrained by the RMA. They are responding to the challenges of the system and are not the cause of those challenges. We are making this very clear to ministers. 

LGNZ will be submitting on these pieces of legislation – and we plan to share our draft submission outline with you late next week. The outline will list the things we think are critical to comment on as well as signal our potential position. We’ll email it directly to you.  

We’re sharing that outline as early as we can so your feedback on it genuinely shapes our draft submission, and so that you can use our outline to help inform your own submissions. We’ll also be sharing our draft submission with you for feedback later on. 

This week we’re analysing the Bills to see how strongly opportunities for local voice and input by councils and communities come through. We’re thoughtful that the reform could see councils responsible for delivering plans that they haven’t necessarily set.  

We’re also concerned about clarity around transition and when that will happen, including how councils should plan during the transition period, and how both transition and implementation will be resourced.  

These are very complex pieces of legislation and reform, and add to the significant, cumulative impact of change on councils, which we will be stressing.  

Our submission will also be informed by what’s set out in the RM Reform Issues Paper that we’ve shared with members previously and had some useful feedback on.