New Zealand Planning Institute Annual Conference

Good morning it’s great to be with you in Queenstown today. I would like to acknowledge:

• Bryce Julyan, Chair of the New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) and Susan Houston, the CEO.
• Dr Jan Wright, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
• Michael Skerrett, of Ngai Tahu
• And other dignitaries here with us today

The theme for your conference is, ‘Mountains to the Sea,’ and you need only to look out these windows to see that full spectrum surrounding us in exquisite beauty. When it comes to the environment, New Zealand is truly remarkable. The stunning scenery: mountains, lakes and rivers, farmland and forests remind us daily why good planning decisions are so important.

The role of the planning fraternity is critical because effective resource management is vital to sustaining our spectacular natural environment, our quality of life, our national identity, our competitive advantage and our economy.

Every one of us wants the air we breathe, our land and our rivers to be free from pollution, and we all want to look after our oceans and protect our rich biodiversity. But we also want a higher standard of living, and affordable houses, power and food. We want to see jobs created and the economy grow and to deny the importance of these aspirations in making our decisions is not tenable.

That’s why our Government has worked hard to provide real leadership on environmental issues to ensure a cleaner and brighter future for all New Zealanders.

Since coming into government we have made important improvements to our wider resource management system – across all facets of environmental management:

• For the first time in New Zealand’s history we now have a comprehensive regime to effectively regulate activities in our Exclusive Economic Zone and protect our oceans, allowing public input into decisions for the first time.
• We have introduced the Environmental Reporting Bill which, for the first time, will ensure New Zealanders have guaranteed access to high quality information on the state of our environment.
• We have made a number of improvements to the Resource Management Act through the Resource Management Amendment Act 2009 and 2013 and we are continuing to work on our next stage of reforms and remain focused on their introduction to parliament this year.

I know a big part of your conference focus this year Is in the water management and the land use/water interface so I want to talk a little about where we are and where we’re going in that respect.

Where freshwater is concerned:

• Since coming into office we have spent $101 million on water clean-ups and committed $350 million for lake and river clean-ups.
• Implemented the first ever National Policy Statement for Freshwater.
• Established the Land and Water Forum, a collaborative approach to water management.
• Passed regulations for requiring the metering of 98% of water takes.
• Doubled penalties for non-compliance with water regulations and strengthened monitoring and enforcement.
• Developed a National Objectives Framework for Freshwater.
• Proposed numeric national water quality bottom lines.
• Creating a legislative planning framework that supports a community-led collaborative approach.

In November last year I was here in Queenstown to announce my decision to amend the Kawerau Water Conservation Order to prevent the damming of the nearby Nevis River, on the grounds that it would have had major negative effects on native fish, river flow features and recreational values.

And I think the elements of that decision in this area reflect the challenges and choices we face. This area of Central Otago is a great example of just how crucial water is to our economic and environmental values. You just need to consider the abundant recreational and tourist opportunities in the area, the agricultural and horticultural production of the area, and the vital electricity that is generated in this region, all of which rely on water.

But we know that by the time the water leaves these mountains and reaches the sea, it is not always in the state we would want.

On a national level, the Government’s water reform programme will improve the way councils and communities plan and make decisions about managing their local freshwater resources.

Under the NPS that we introduced in 2011, regional councils must now include management objectives for their water in their regional plans that reflect national and local needs. They have to ensure those objectives are accompanied by setting limits for water quality, flow and allocation.

Furthermore, they must avoid over-allocation and address existing over-allocation. This means they must manage land use and water in an integrated way and involve iwi and hapū in freshwater decision-making and planning.

Most regional councils have already notified the timelines by which they intend to implement the freshwater national policy statement.

Three out of 16 councils say they will complete implementation by December 2014. The remaining 13 will implement the freshwater NPS over a longer timeframe - but before 2030 - via a series of catchment or management zone-specific plan changes.

Several councils are already using collaborative processes for freshwater planning. This new way of working will no doubt involve and perhaps challenge you all at some point. The government will work closely with NZPI, councils and the wider community to provide guidance and support to make this work.

The NPS tells councils what to do, but does not currently contain much in the way of guidance or instructions on how to do it. Consultation recently closed on amendments to the NPS, which include a national framework to help communities set their freshwater objectives and limits. The Ministry for the Environment received more than 7000 submissions, which really highlights just how much interest there is in freshwater among New Zealand communities.

We are currently working through those submissions and I look forward to making announcements on amendments to the freshwater NPS in due course.

RM survey results

Looking at the Resource Management System more broadly as well as putting in place these vital laws, regulations and standards to protect and enhance our environment, it is important that we measure how well these standards are being implemented. It may be a cliché, but it is true you can’t manage what you don’t measure.

For this reason, every two years the Ministry for the Environment surveys councils to understand how well they are implementing the Resource Management Act.

Today I am pleased to announce the results of the Biennial Survey of councils for 2012/2013. These survey results give a useful snapshot of how well council resource management processes are working at least at a quantative level.

The overall trend across the country is that resource consent processing is becoming more timely and efficient, with councils making good improvements to the number of resource consents that are processed on time.

• In the 2012/13 period, 97 per cent of consents were processed on time, compared with 95 per cent in since 2010/11. This is also a vast improvement from the 69 per cent of resource consents that were processed on time in 2007/08.
• Councils also improved their efficiency in processing consent applications, with fewer staff working to process more consents on time. 
• We have a decrease in the use of section 92 requests for information and an increase in pre-application meetings, however there has also been a slight increase in the use of section 37 time extensions.

Both the economy and environment benefit if councils make timely resource consent decisions. I would like to thank all of you who played a part in this largely positive result.

Another encouraging trend is the significant increase in the proportion of authorities that involve tangata whenua in planning decisions. Involving Maori early in the planning process means that the effects of the development and use of natural resources on cultural values is taken into account before decisions are made.

On the whole and across most councils the trends are positive.

When necessary, the Ministry will engage with councils to enable performance improvements on specific aspects of council implementation of the RMA.

The obvious limitation is that these numbers provide only part of the picture, the more important qualitative assessments of how well the planning frameworks and consent decisions are meeting societal needs remains hard to distil and RMA and Environmental Reporting changes will address these.

Conclusion

This is an exciting and challenging time for planners and those involved in resource management. From the water reforms, implementation of the Resource Management Act reforms and across all facets of environmental management, you will be at the forefront of decision making.

The important decisions we make today about how we manage our resources and environment are vital to New Zealand’s economic and environmental performance, now and for the future.

I wish you all the best for the remainder of your conference.