The passing of two of the Bills to replace the current Resource Management Act (RMA) marks a significant milestone for the Employers and Manufacturers Association’s (EMA) ongoing campaign for reform in an area that affects all its members.
"Six years ago, we started a campaign alongside two of our partners to reform the old RMA, and we were told it would probably never happen," said EMA CEO Brett O’Riley.
"Our work alongside Infrastructure New Zealand and Property Council New Zealand, and the partnership that developed from the work we commissioned with the Environmental Defence Society, proved the sceptics wrong."
The EMA’s four organisations and later BusinessNZ joined forces to help convince the current Government to push ahead with those reforms in an area that is critical to the future nation-building of New Zealand."
O’Riley said the passing of the Spatial Planning Act (SPA) and the Natural and Built Environments Act (NBEA) marked a significant success for the lobbying of these organisations and many others but also marked the start of another process in the future of economic and social development in New Zealand.
He continued that, as with any new laws, the proof will be in the implementation. The EMA was happy to secure a voice at the table for the business and development sectors in developing new spatial plans and support having just 16 plans instead of the many more it has now.
"But the new system also has its complexities and several new terminologies and concepts that will almost certainly require testing in the courts - something we’d all rather avoid.”
O’Riley stated that the legislation also faced political uncertainty if there were to be a change of Government, so the seven-to-ten-year timeframe for implementation may be well and truly tested.
