Pretty much everyone I talk with has a story to tell about the RMA. It’s been in place for about 30 years and it simply hasn’t ever been able to do the job originally hoped for it. It hasn’t worked for either our natural or built environments.
Over the course of this parliamentary term, the Government has been working on replacing the Resource Management Act with a new planning system that will make it easier to build, remove barriers to growth, build a stronger economy and provide for the kind of environmental goals we as New Zealanders aspire to.
This work took another important step with both the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill being reported back from the Environment Select Committee, and they’re due to have their second readings in our Parliament this week. These Bills will form the basis of a new planning system which is projected to boost GDP by $3.1 billion annually, while delivering $13.3 billion in savings over 30 years through reduced administrative and compliance costs.
On a practical level, it’s estimated that 45 percent of consent and permit applications currently required under the RMA could be removed under the new system. That’s between 15,000 and 22,000 consents which will no longer be needed.
These reforms will replace one of New Zealand’s most complicated pieces of legislation with a planning system that is more predictable, more consistent and far better at enabling New Zealand to grow.
On another note and in further example of us fixing the basics and building for the future, as the Minister of Statistics, I was pleased to confirm that New Zealanders will have access to monthly inflation data from July 2027 as part of a major upgrade to the country’s economic statistics.
This is about giving families, businesses and government more frequent inflation data, which will allow them to make better-informed decisions.
The change to monthly Consumer Price Index reporting will be phased in to ensure quality remains at the highest standard. And when this transition is complete, it will represent one of the biggest improvements to New Zealand’s economic statistics in decades, and one that will have widespread benefits.
This is about fixing the basics and building a more modern and responsive economic statistics system for New Zealand.
