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01 August 2021

Natural and Built Environments Exposure Draft Bill

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This week the government took the first step in its substantive reform of the resource management framework, releasing the “exposure draft” of the Natural and Built Environments Bill. 

 

The Bill follows the report of the Resource Management Review Panel, which made a number of recommendations for reform to reorient the framework, having identified systemic issues with the existing law.  This Bill is the first of three pieces of legislation proposed to ultimately replace the Resource Management Act, and is intended as the primary replacement.

 

THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NEW REGIME

  • Protect, and where necessary, restore the natural environment including its capacity to provide for the wellbeing of present and future generations.

  • Better enable development in order to improve housing supply, affordability and choice, and provide essential social and built infrastructure.

  • Give effect to, rather than just take into account, the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

  • Better prepare for and adapt to climate change and risks from natural hazards, and mitigate emissions contributing to climate change.

  • Reduce complexity, improve efficiency and effectiveness while retaining public participation.

 

KEY FEATURES OF THE BILL 

  • Explicit environmental limits (either as minimum states or maximum harm), to protect ecological integrity and human health.  Limits must be set for air, biodiversity, coastal waters, estuaries, freshwater and soil.  The precautionary approach is to apply when setting limits.

  • The focus to shift away from managing adverse effects toward promoting positive outcomes (not just environmental, but also cultural heritage and housing, for example).  However, the Bill will carry over the requirement to “avoid, remedy and mitigate” adverse effects of activities on the environment, but without placing unreasonable costs of development and resource use.

  • The new National Planning Framework to provide certainty for developers, local government, infrastructure providers and the community.  Much of the existing system is directed at managing conflicts between competing objectives – resolving conflict will be a key focus of the Framework.

  • Consolidation of existing policy statements, regional and district plans (down from 100 to 14!), and a divesting of responsibility away from local government toward central government and unelected committees.

 

While this “exposure draft” provides a promising first glimpse of the proposed legislation, we expect particular scrutiny will be directed at the extent of the reforms, new (and potentially complicated) regimes, and the transfer of power away from elected representatives.  Furthermore, this draft doesn’t currently address critical issues including consenting, existing use rights, subdivisions, compliance, monitoring and enforcement. The devil may yet be in the detail.

 

Consultation on this exposure draft is expected to open in July 2021, which will be the first of two rounds of select committee consideration. 

 

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