Penny Gaylor: 'I too look forward to a better kind of politics'

Penny Gaylor.

Weekly column by Kāpiti's Greater Wellington Regional Council representative Penny Gaylor.

Congratulations to the two new MPs who have been elected for the Mana and Otaki electorates, Barbara Edmonds and Terisa Ngobi. Commiserations to those who stood but did not make it in to Parliament.

I'm looking forward to working with Barbara and Terisa to help get great things achieved for the Kāpiti Coast, and I hope that the work of GWRC across the whole of the region will continue to have the ear of the Labour Government.

And as expressed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's in her acceptance speech, I too look forward to a better kind of politics. For me 'better' is when people actually listen to one another, and accept that different opinions exist and that working towards common goals makes us better politicians and certainly make for good and enduring outcomes for our communities - well that's what I believe in.

At Wellington Regional Council's Environment Committee meeting last Thursday one of the updates we received was about the resourcing impact on GWRC for the Government's new Essential Freshwater Package reform's rules and regulations.

"We don't have a enough resources to deal with new government legislation" is a phrase I've heard and said many times in my decade in local government. But what does

that mean in this case? So here is a taster of what we discussed last week that delves into the resourcing challenge.

Additional requirements will be spread across relevant departments of GWRC, and include activities like: resourcing additional compliance and enforcement staff; develop increased data storage capacity for monitoring information including fish passage; provide science advice internally as demand will be increase; respond to an increase in applications for funding support through the wetland fund for stock exclusion (eg fencing, planting, pest control); changes to standard operating practices where required such as weed management in wetlands; gather information on current milking platforms, irrigated areas and winter grazing (remember that 75 per cent of our Wellington region is rural lands); plan and prepare for plan changes; and assess the implications of the Freshwater Package for implications to the Regional Policy Statement, and others.

Don't want to scare any of us, but those are some examples.

And while those are some of the implications for us dealing with landowners, we also need to be mindful that as a landowner ourselves we must lead by example and at least meet all the requirements of the Freshwater Package such as stock exclusion activities relating to wetlands.

The Environment Committee also appointed five councillors to form a hearing subcommittee to consider submissions to the public consultation on the Draft Parks Network Plan, and I'll chair that subcommittee. Consultation closes this Friday and we will hear submitters at a meeting in late November.