Acknowledge Stewardship
The woes of section 6
Section 6 of the RMA says that councils have to protect, among other things, indigenous vegetation, landscapes, cultural values and heritage. Farmers are left with a piece of land that requires council approval (resource consent) for any changes. As a result of the interpretation and implementation of section 6, farmers who have retained and managed conservation values on their land are rewarded not as great land managers, but with rules telling them what they cannot do with their land. That is a tragedy.
The Environment Court has said that the national benefits of such protection outweigh the wellbeing of individual landowners. Councils have no choice but to protect these areas. They are bound by legislation and case law and are pushed by environmental groups.
Planning and case law has reached a point where it is almost impossible for an individual to argue a case. The impact on the social and economic sustainability of a property and the costs of managing those areas are overridden by the compulsory protection of the national good.
All New Zealanders agree we have a collective responsibility to protect areas that are important to maintaining our biodiversity, our culture, our natural beauty and our natural heritage. Most farmers follow this ethos in their day-to-day farming decisions.
Rewrite Section 6
Federated Farmers believes that the RMA must be amended to include property rights in section 6.
This will help a address the inevitable conflict between the role of the individual in managing these areas and the need to protect other matters of national importance outlined in section 6.
It should also provide a model for more specific guidelines for protecting these values and encourage far greater use of environmental offsets by councils with the following outcomes achieved:
- Where rules are proposed for the protection of such sites, provide a mechanism for prioritising levels of significance in the eyes of the community, represented and administered by councils and contestable central protection funds.
- Continue to meet current expectations of the public and not reduce the ability of councils to introduce rules or other methods, either site specific or general, to protect these sites.
- Empower and build substance into the sustainable management ethos of section 5 without undermining clear goals of environmental protection.
