Resource Management Act
Farmers continue to support the ethos of section 5 of the Resource Management Act (RMA). That is, sustainable management that allows people and communities to get on with their lives and for the economy to grow while managing any adverse effects of those activities on the environment.
New Zealand is full of stunning landscape backdrops, and as a result landowners continue to be highly vulnerable to the demands of the wider community to protect these backdrops from farming and development. The arguments around landscape are highly subjective. To this end, the other larger piece of work that is urgently required and fundamental to farmers' issues with the RMA, has largely been off the radar of discussion around reform. The impact of protecting large tracts of private land through the implementation of section 6, matters of national importance, such as biodiversity and landscape, remains a real challenge for farmers.
The desires of New Zealanders to protect and enhance these areas can easily be expressed through a submission process and then manifested in a decision on a plan, when there is no connection to the actual management costs or the opportunity costs faced by the landowner. There is urgent need for this balance to be redressed through both legislative and policy changes, including inserting rights in property as a matter to be weighed against other matters of national importance.
Some councils continue to undertake major plan changes that identify particular areas of farmland or have large material effects on the way farming activities are managed without first consulting with affected landowners, at a farm scale level. This is of particular concern in respect to implementing landscape and biodiversity protection.
There is a growing tide of willingness on behalf of councils and central government to undertake collaborative approaches to developing policy in partnership with external stakeholders. This is leading to some very robust policy frameworks that recognise the practicality of implementing any changes on farm.
Recent amendments to the RMA have seen some improvements to consenting processes for larger projects and major infrastructure. That said, the ‘little guy' is still picking up the pieces and the costs. Time and time again our members tell us of delays and additional costs associated with small scale consents.
Inconsistency in compliance action, proof of environmental effects and an unwillingness on the part of some councils to adopt environmental restorative justice in preference to Environment Court action continue to be an issue in some parts of the country, in particular in relation to the regulation and enforcement governing farm dairy effluent.
Federated Farmers wants
- An amendment to the Resource Management Act requiring full market compensation for landowners if land use is unduly restricted under the RMA and the insertion of rights in property as a matter to be weighed against other matters of national importance like landscape and biodiversity protection in section 6
- More councils to undertake collaborative policy development and to engage and consult landowners at a farm scale level prior to the notifi cation of any plan or policy that impacts on their farming business
- A more streamlined and cost effective approach to processing small scale consents through legislation change and a stronger independent auditing of council processes and performance
- A greater focus and use of restorative justice in preference to undertaking costly Environment Court cases.
Spokesperson
Federated Farmers RMA spokesperson is national board member Iam MacKenzie, you can contact him at imackenzie@fedfarm.org.nz.
