Waikato boasts an incredible environment, rich in diversity with beautiful landscapes and precious flora and fauna throughout the region, from native bats and birds to microscopic fungi.
Wonderful communities who live in North Waikato and throughout the wider Waikato understand the need to work, live, and play here while protecting our waterways, the land, and its ecosystems. It’s imperative we have sensible, workable legislation, to balance caring for our great outdoors while making it feasible to thrive. Demands of food and fibre production, manufacturing, urban development, and infrastructure growth for everything from transportation networks to power generation, and landowners wanting to enjoy their own land, must be taken into consideration alongside considering environmental impacts. It’s a complex equation in these modern times, vital to ensure the longevity of our natural environments for future generations while growing as our economy needs.
The Resource Management Act (RMA) was ineffective, unnecessarily complicated, and needlessly restrictive, stymying much needed development without adequately providing the intended protections for the environment. Two bills to replace the Resource Management Act have passed their third reading in Parliament, marking the most significant overhaul of New Zealand’s planning system in more than three decades. The Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill have been refined through the Select Committee process, as part of the bills’ progress through the House. They improve clarity, workability and certainty, while maintaining the core objectives of
the new planning system. It has a clear purpose; people’s enjoyment of their land, and the use and development of natural resources – fundamentally, while protecting and enhancing the natural environment. Streamlining the processes under the new nationwide planning system means greater standardisation, with better consistency across the country. Kiwis will be more able to use their land, for activities such as building a garage or adding a deck, with fewer unnecessary and costly rules and requirements.
The system continues to recognise positive effects of activities that support emissions reductions with adverse effects of greenhouse gas emissions. These are now being managed through the Climate Change Response Act instead of the planning system. Local circumstances and community expectations for environmental limits are better accommodated and achievable over time in this revised legislation, to provide flexibility and practicality in balancing environmental needs with social and economic demands. The freshwater farm plans framework is more proportionate and cost-effective. Higher risk primary production operations will require certification and audits. For lower risk farming operations, councils retain the ability to inspect plans and check that agreed actions are implemented. The system changes include modernising our heritage framework, focused on protecting what matters while providing more certainty for landowners. Compared to the old RMA, reducing needless bureaucracy, expense, and complexity and introducing consistent nationwide standards ensures much needed development can proceed, without compromising our treasured Waikato natural resources or environment.
