RMA changes

Seems to me that deregulating and making processes such as gaining Resource Consent for a project easier is not a good thing

thoughts

Everyone out there is solid blue "middle New Zealand" is going to love these changes, until a power company decided to build a windfarm nextdoor and they discover they have no real way of opposing it anymore.

Then the gummint will be accused of being fascists in the pocket of big business.

As opposed to companies with deep pocket being able to screw with their potential competition for year after year for no reason other than they want to continue their local monopoly in *whatever* they sell. Which has been happening week after week after week...

according to the peeps on national Radio this morning there were already provisions for stupid anti competitive time delays to be dealt with, like that supermarket example everyone is using - as to if people actually did so well thats in the administering of the old act not the act itself, maybe?

If something requires major effort to administer right then it's likely it was flawed from the start. It was, practicality-wise and in functionally, difficult and hindering. Saying that there were 'already provisions..' etc in the existing law for X or Y is a bit laughable when the past decade has shown it not to be - no matter what is actually written down it is just too cumbersome.

The idea and intention of the RMA was fine but was just a crap piece of legislation which caused unnecessary hindrance and cost.

administration is by its nature time consuming and when considering our environment so it should be

take a look at the auckland skyline and ask yourself - perhaps it has been all too easy for some...

if the changes have streamlined the process without taking out the checks and balances all good, but from my laypersons look at the reportage so far that may not be the case

Looking forward to the courts telling the westfields and supermarkets to fuck right off with their abuse of the process.

The system is not working as it should so change is needed, whether its going to go too far or not far enough is to be seen. I would expect there would be some amendments after a suitable number of cases have gone through under the new rules.

While many of the intentions of the old act were noteworthy the actual effects were unintentional and unwanted.

thank god for *some* progress.

The RMA was pathetic anyway

Corner of Whitney Street and Tiverton Road was a section with a single house, some beautiful big pine trees. Massive trees.

Some fucking scum sucking shit bought the property, cut the trees down and subdivided it into 3 properties.

Seriously. That is just fucked up.

though to be fair pine trees have a limited life and huge pine trees suggest they were at the end of theirs and becoming a safety concern

the old RMA may not have saved those trees... the new one def wouldn't have

I haven't seen the amended RMA but read that trees only up to a given size are exempt

what that size is and whether it applies equally to all species, native and exotic, I do not know

www.mfe.govt.nz/rma/central/amendments/resource-management-simplify-and-streamline-amendment-bill-2009/summary.html

wheres Gdub with his knack of translating really boring shite (like the RMA) into lay terms...

TA DA! SUPER-BORING-MAN TO THE RESCUE

The anti-vexatious stuff in the legislation is all spin - I was glad to hear they were going to do that but who can tell me what the actual policy response is?
Answer: Make it more expensive. Raise the filing cost to $500 and allow the court to require security for costs. So that just stops the poor (such as not-for-profits) from making claims, regardless of the merits of their claim. Ace.
There is the suggestion of punitive action for trade competitor complaints but that's not solid yet.

I don't really like the move to a more centralised decision model that takes the decision making away from locally-elected officials - but in practice those officials have been making a cock up of it so they can't have expected to keep it.

All in all, I think little will change - it's tipping the balance back towards developers but in practice they were the ones with the expensive lawyers anyway who were largely getting what they wanted. It depends largely on how the central body and the independent commissioners apply the law and where they side.

so in simple terms its not a recession beater or goiung to kick start the economy

National needs to get a new PR company

I didn't say you were boring Gdub

You don't have to bro, I know I am!