Pro RMA

Policy set to protect productive land

In April 2018, MfE and Stats NZ published the Our land 2018 report, which is a comprehensive assessment of how human activity is affecting the state of New Zealand’s land to date. The report identified two main pressures facing highly productive land on the edge of towns and cities: expansion of urban areas, and the accompanying loss of productive land;...

Napier begins review of District Plan

Napier City Council has recently launched its District Plan review process, which at this early stage is looking to be based around the following six key outcomes: 1. Putting people first, 2. Open for business, 3. A port and coastal city, 4. Our people our stories, 5. Ecological excellence, 6. Pedal power. Too often the Plan development process falls into...

What’s New in Planning?

Proposals for developing a ‘national planning template’ were first introduced following a 2013 discussion document ‘Building Competitive Cities: Reform of the Urban and Infrastructure Planning System’, with consultation on the development of National Planning Standards commencing on 6 June 2018 and submissions on Draft Standards closing on 17 August 2018. The themes emerging from the consultation indicated that: current plans...

Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme

The RSE Scheme allows the horticulture and viticulture industry to recruit overseas workers for seasonal work to supplement shortages of New Zealand workers. Across a number of regions’ the Scheme initially provided 5,000 workers, increasing to 11,100 during 2017/18 in response to worker shortfalls. Further labour shortfalls are projected for and beyond 2018/19, and the cap on RSE worker numbers...

Statutory acknowledgements & RMA

A number of different co- management initiatives have been established in recent times, however in the world of resource management it’s the Statutory Acknowledgements framework that is likely to be encountered on an everyday basis. Statutory Acknowledgements have arisen from a number of Treaty of Waitangi settlements around the country as part of cultural redress for Maori. They relate to...

Pro RMA

New national standards for Forestry sector

National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF) will come into effect on 1 May 2018 in an attempt to get greater consistency across the country Plantation forestry is New Zealand’s third largest primary sector. According to the Ministry for the Environment and the Ministry for Primary Industries, it employs over 26,000 people and generates around $5 billion in export earnings...

Working together is a better solution

Water Conservation Orders (WCO's) are mechanisms under the Resource Management Act designed to recognise and protect outstanding values of particular bodies of water. Commonly associated with movements in the 1980’s to protect the country’s most wild and scenic rivers from hydroelectric dam initiatives, they are legal instruments that can be used to set rules that Councils must abide by. A...

Pro RMA

How Efficient is Too Efficient

Obviously resource management involves the consideration and management of competing interests, or if not ’competing’ certainly ‘different’ interests. That’s the democratic society we live in, and one person’s frustration can be another person’s preferred outcome. It’s the fact we’re different and come from different perspectives that it seems so hard to agree on an approach, and people often question whether...