Environment Minister Nick Smith is carving up Phase II of the RMA reform like this.He is looking to establish a series of 10 workstreams Four of them will cover greater central government management of aquaculture, infrastructure, urban design and water. One of the workstreams covers creation of the Environmental Protection Authority. The rest of them will deal with better alignment of the Resource Management, Building, Conservation, Forests, and Historic Places Acts. With legislation due in the House by the end of the year and report backs from the various work streams due in August, Smith is setting what looks like a frenetic work pace involving a number of advisory groups from outside the bureaucracy.

Among potential new processes envisaged by Smith: a single approval process for building permits and resource consents on minor projects; work in this area will closely follow the regulatory review of the Building Act; streamlined processes where both resources consent and a DOC concession are required and consider the same issues; single processing timeframes or the use of memorandum of agreements in cases where sustainable indigenous forest felling plans are required under the Forest Act and the Resource Management Act requires sustainable management of natural resources; aligning processes between the Historic Places Act and the Resource Management Act.

On the EPA, Smith sees “opportunties to expand to include a wider range of environmental functions which are best performed at the national level.” Other potential functions of the EPA could be management of the Exclusive Economic Zone legislation. Smith says “The extent to which powers and functions need to be under direct ministerial control will be discussed and the experience of Australia and other EPA’s noted.”

 Copyright © Media Information Ltd
NZ Energy & Environment Business Week