Will RMA reform be the government’s next difficult sell?
Remniscent of Three Waters, local government and Federated Farmers have vocalised strong opposition to the Resource Management Act replacement this week
In today’s edition: latest tracking on Cyclone Gabrielle; will RMA reform actually solve our water woes?; creative fundraising efforts for Auckland flood response, but first, select committee hearings reveal strong opposition to RMA reform
The canopy of a single mature tree intercepts 40% of the water that falls during a storm (Image: Auckland Council)
Apologies this is a little late this morning - was presented with a prolonged “spinning wheel” of death on my laptop at 7.06am.
Complex and consequential reform still on the slate
Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins exchanged barbs about Wednesday’s policy “reset” announcement in Tauranga yesterday. Even with that policy offload, the government still has a very large slate of complex and consequential reform ahead of them. Three of them have elements that converge around the other subject Hipkins and Luxon verbally sparred about – mitigating or adapting to the impacts of climate change.
Poll shows low support for Three Waters
As the upper North Island braces for Cyclone Gabrielle, the impact of the flooding in Auckland two weeks ago seems to have done nothing to bolster support for Three Waters. The floods were labelled a wake-up call on the need for the reform as extreme weather puts water infrastructure under increasing pressure. A new poll from Labour’s pollsters conducted between January 26 – 31 (the flood hit on January 27), shows only 17% of people support the reform while 42% are against. Three Waters is currently locked in the government’s fix-it factory with changes likely to be announced in the coming weeks. There is also increasing doubt that the legislation required to price agricultural emissions will get through before the election.
Opposition to RMA reform growing
With everything that’s been going on, it’s understandable that the select committee hearings on one of the bills to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA), the Natural and Built Environments Bill (NABE), didn’t get a lot of pick-up. But as Politik’s Richard Harman reports (paywalled), while the prime minister was putting out policy fires, “a new blaze was starting in a select committee as submitter after submitter came along to attack the NABE”. As with Three Waters, Federated Farmers and Local Government NZ aren’t happy at all. Newsroom’s Tim Murphy reports on Auckland Council’s draft submission on the other RMA replacement bill, the Spatial Planning Bill, which says it goes too far in diminishing the influence of local communities in favour of a cabinet minister’s sole powers.
James Shaw wants to accelerate climate adaptation component of RMA reform
In the wake of the Auckland floods, the RMA has cropped up in discussions of what we haven’t done well in the way we have built our cities and the difficult issue of managed retreat. AUT’s Kathy Waghorn says past changes to the RMA have made it “a lot easier to chop down trees.” The canopy of a single mature tree intercepts 40% of the water that falls during a storm so it doesn’t reach the ground. Auckland Council has a goal of increasing the city’s tree canopy to 30% across urban areas. It’s currently 18%. Climate change minister James Shaw wants to accelerate work on the third leg of the RMA reform stool, a bill on climate adaptation, which would cover managed retreat. That was sitting on a to-do list but Shaw is looking for cross-party consensus to get it passed before this year’s election. National’s climate change spokesperson Todd Muller says the goal is “a relatively tall order.”
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The latest tracking on Cyclone Gabrielle
The cyclone has made a slight shift east according to some weather forecasters but at this stage, that hasn’t diminished the severe weather risk for New Zealand. Latest models show bad weather will start hitting on Sunday with the worst of the cyclone expected on Monday and Tuesday. People in the upper North Island are being warned to prepare for up to 300mm of rain and 150km/h winds. Authorities have extended the states of emergency in Auckland and Coromandel and are asking people to prepare to be able to sustain themselves for three days, and to make sure they have enough required medication to last a week. Auckland mayor Wayne Brown says “We’re preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. It’s not looking good.” RNZ has a good guide on how to prepare.
Will RMA reform actually solve our water woes?
Coincidentally related new episode of When the Facts Change this week as Bernard Hickey talks to Irrigation NZ CEO Vanessa Winning about the new version of the RMA creating perverse and unintended consequences. The hope is that the reforms create more resource and eco friendly industries in Aotearoa. However, Winning and Hickey discuss how the government's good intentions could negatively impact our produce production.
Click and collect
Hospitals hit 100% occupancy more than 600 times last year
Latest on Turkey-Syria earhtquake where the death toll has now passed 20,000
Some good news. A study has found Australia and New Zealand to be the best places to survive a nuclear apocalypse. No one tell the billionaires.
Speaking of, Google’s parent company Alphabet lost $100b in market value yesterday after an ad designed to show off the prowess of its artificial intelligence chatbot shared inaccurate information
From the man who grossly insulted Palmerston North, the revival perhaps no one is asked for. John Cleese is rebooting Fawlty Towers.
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It’s Friday so…
This morning I am delighted to bring you the confirmed market value of a phallic-shaped radish being auctioned for a good cause. A TradeMe auction raising funds for the Auckland City Mission Flood Response closed last night and the unusual radish sold for $151. For the sake of the readers and maybe the radish, Newshub sensitively pixelated the vegetable in their story about creative flood fundraising efforts, while Stuff did not. Take your pick of the bunch.
