Mood of the Boardroom: Chipping away at the RMA

Auckland City commuters in gridlock, view along Albert Street, Auckland CBD.Photo / Brett Phibbs

CEOs support sticking with the status quo on changes to the Act, reports Brendan Manning
Winston Peters' win in Northland foiled the Government's plans for the Resource Management Act.

National's defeat to Winston Peters in the Northland by-election in March forced John Key to rip up his proposed reforms to the Resource Management Act, requiring National to get another support party on board -- aside from Act -- to get the reforms over the line.

United Future and the Maori Party both support procedural areas of the reforms -- which would help with problems such as housing affordability -- but not changes to the core principles of the RMA.

When asked how the Government should proceed, almost 70 per cent of the CEOs supported continuing to seek minor changes to the RMA that would be able to cross the line in Parliament by gaining support from enough MPs to get over the 50 per cent voting threshold.

Starting again, and drafting a completely new piece of resource management legislation was supported by around 30 per cent of the bosses, while giving up and accepting the status quo was supported by less than 5 per cent.

"The first option is the best of a lousy choice," ICBC NZ chairman Don Brash said. "I admit to being surprised that National can't seem to exert enough influence on the Maori Party and/or Peter Dunne to make major change to the RMA possible."

All major political parties needed to work on reforming the RMA together, a real estate firm boss said.

"Keep at it," admonished Cooper and Company boss Matthew Cockram. Cooper and Company has had plenty of experience with the RMA with its redevelopment of the historic Britomart site in Auckland.

Others said starting from scratch would slow everything down even further.

Port of Tauranga boss Mark Cairns said the true costs of the RMA weren't properly understood "Whilst I accept the principles of sustainable management of our natural and physical resources, the consenting process and typically subsequent myriad of courts is crippling in terms of cost and time."

The dredging consent the port was just giving effect to took four years after numerous appeals and mediations and $2.5 million in associated costs, he said.

Others warned that environmental protection and a community voice was important.

Governments should subject councils to more direction

When asked whether councils should be subject to more direction by central government over their administration of the RMA, almost 80 per cent of the CEOs agreed. A further 9 per cent said No. The rest were unsure.

Deloitte chief executive Thomas Pippos said local and central government needed to be better aligned as to their joint aspirations and work towards those joint goals and be held accountable accordingly.

"Confusion reigns," said Mainfreight boss Don Braid. "Councils should have a commonality in their interpretation and application of the act."

"Consistency across NZ is important," Dame Alison Paterson added.

An infrastructure firm boss said the RMA should be modified to allow local government to act more unilaterally "without a public process that considers every tiny step".

Among the cautions: The current model allows personal prejudice and agendas to influence the process negatively and regulations were being introduced for regulations' sake.

Said a financial sector boss: "The underlying aims of the legislation are sound, said: however, we've lost sight of the value of it by enabling a ferocious bureaucracy at city, regional, and central government levels.

"We have to slim that down."