9. JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) Link to this
to the Minister for the Environment
What steps is the Government taking to improve the efficiency of processing resource consents?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) Link to this
The Government is introducing financial incentives for councils to process resource consents in a more timely way. The policy will work by requiring councils to discount their Resource Management Act fees when they breach the statutory timelines, and by increasing the discount in relation to how late the consent is. Today the Government released drafts of the incentives and the rules of the policy so we can consult local government, businesses, and others so that the regulations can be in place on 1 July.
Is the Minister aware of the huge frustration for thousands of New Zealanders who get penalised if they pay their rates late but have to put up with councils completely ignoring statutory timeframes on their resource consent applications?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
I acknowledge that there is huge frustration and a high cost to the New Zealand economy from inefficient resource consent processes. I note that in 2000, 21 percent of consents were late or required extensions, and this figure got progressively worse until 2008 when 59 percent of consents were taking longer than the statutory 20 working days. I am confident that this policy change will reverse this trend and get resource consents processed more efficiently.
Hon Shane JonesIn relation to the call-in decision recently announced over the Mackenzie Country agricultural project, how does he believe that consent allocation process will be efficient, given that the organisation designed to deal with call-in has not been fully developed or revealed to the public?
Hon Dr NICK SMITH Link to this
The Environmental Protection Authority was established as part of the first phase of the Government’s Resource Management Act reforms. The Environmental Protection Authority is perfectly able to function and to deal with the management of boards of inquiry, and to deal with national consenting. I am very confident that when consents go through the national process they will not take as long as they did—in some cases, over a decade—during the term of the previous Government.