Property Council New Zealand (Property Council) is broadly supportive of the Government’s work programme to repeal and replace the Resource Management Act 1991 (the RMA). In our view, the Natural and Built Environment Bill (NBEB) is insufficiently detailed enough to provide certainty that the Bill will achieve its desired outcomes.
Property Council makes the following recommendations:
- Recognition of development in the purpose clause;
- Recognition of private property rights and existing rights across property;
- More granular consideration of environmental limits at local/regional levels;
- Simplification of environmental outcomes, or, some hierarchy/conflict resolution mechanism to deal with tensions in environmental outcomes;
- Support for local/regional voices in national planning framework regulations;
- Consideration of dispute resolution mechanisms being set in primary legislation rather than in regulation;
- More transparency around processes and mechanisms yet to be defined in the draft exposure bill – particularly around interactions with central/local government;
- Consideration of other agency/departmental expertise and views apart from the Minister of Conservation in regards to planning committees;
- Disclose drafting of placeholder provisions prior to the introduction of the Natural and Built Environments Bill so we can more fulsomely provide advice to the Government on their reforms.