Key confirms review of most contentious RMA reforms

Prime Minister John Key has made his most explicit comments since the election that contentious reforms to the Resource Management Act will be reviewed and may not proceed.

Key appointed Nick Smith to the environment portfolio in his new ministry announcement today, returning him to a role previously held by Amy Adams.

Speaking to BusinessDesk after the Cabinet announcement today, Key said he expected Smith to "go away and have a very good look at" proposals to reform the RMA, which would have led to the merging of two crucial clauses, Sections 6 and 7. These clauses define the "sustainable management" principle in Section 5 of the RMA.  Adams had led proposals to collapse the two interpretive clauses into one and to add economic development elements that would balance up environmental considerations.

Environmental groups and opposition parties were alarmed by the proposals, which stalled in the last Parliament after the United Future and Maori parties refused to back them.  While the National party could count on the one vote available from the Act party to pass the proposals in the new Parliament, Key is signalling a willingness to hear alternative approaches, making good on commitments he made to environmental lobby leaders before the Sept. 20 election.

"The concern that the environmental agencies and lobby groups have made is a real concern about that merger of 6 and 7," said Key. "The question is: do you need to merge 6 and 7 to deliver the outcomes that you want? There’s quite a mixture of views. Some people think it’s actually quite possible for us to not merge 6 and 7, allay some of the concerns of the environmental groups, and still deliver."

Greater use of National Policy Statements and National Environmental Standards, which are already provided for in the existing RMA, is being proposed as a simpler alternative. It  would also avoid the potential for years of litigation to establish new case law around substantially changed RMA purposes clauses.

Key also outlined two further issues requiring Smith's attention, saying a sunset clause in existing Special Housing Area legislation needed to be "embedded in the RMA", and that there was an as yet unpublicised issue relating to industrial land that needed resolving.

"I’d expect Nick to go and have a look at his whole building and construction portfolio and see how that ties in ultimately with the RMA reform," Key said. "He’ll obviously go and talk to the other interested groups on both sides, from business right through to the environment, and see how that looks."

The chairman of the Environmental Defence Society, Gary Taylor, welcomed Smith's reappointment to the environment portfolio, saying he looked forward to "a more collaborative approach on RMA reforms. National has a clear mandate for reform and that there are many ways the Act could be improved to enable prompt and less bureaucratic decision-making. The big challenge is how to do that without sacrificing environmental quality, he said.

“Serious engagement with Dr Smith and with other key stakeholders should be able to find an agreed way forward that creates a stable platform for economic growth," Taylor said in a statement.

Labour's housing spokesman Phil Twyford characterised the division of Smith's housing portfolio into three - with Bill English becoming minister responsible for Housing New Zealand and Paula Bennett becoming minister for social housing, as a humiliation for Smith and an arrangement that would produce a "dog's breakfast."

“New Zealanders need more houses, not more Ministers," said Twyford.

On placing the commerce role in the hands of his most junior minister, Paul Goldsmith, who becomes a minister outside Cabinet and is ranked last in the 25-member ministry, Key said Goldsmith was being given a chance to prove himself.

"The big area of work to push through there is cartels," said Key.  "Our view on Paul Goldsmith is he’s a really bright guy, he’ll do a really good job.  We have merged commerce and consumer affairs together. He’s got a lot of time and a big brain, so I’m not worried about that."

Meanwhile, former environment minister, Amy Adams, has picked up the justice, courts and broadcasting roles vacated pre-election by Judith Collins, who resigned over a blogging scandal. Adams also keeps the communications portfolio, which Key has split in two, returning the ICT element of the portfolio to Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce.

(BusinessDesk)