On the same day the Taxpayers’ Union kicked off the Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees roadshow, David Parker has shown his first backdown in relation to one of the most controversial aspects of his RMA reforms.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, says:

“After contacting Minister Parker, informing him of our nationwide roadshow and inviting him to come and justify his proposals before any one of our 30 public meetings, he has committed to fixing the constitutional issues in the bill that would have seen the Environment Court subject to review by the National Māori entity.

“The Chief Justice, Dame Helen Winkelmann shared our concerns in a rare submission to the select committee, stating that such an arrangement would be “inconsistent with New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements” and “would be constitutionally unprecedented and problematic”.

“This significant flaw in the law should have never made it past the drafting stage. It demonstrates that this government is set on ramming these proposals through before the election despite widespread agreement that the proposal is worse than the dog of a bill they are seeking to replace.

“This government has a history of playing fast and loose with our constitutional framework - whether it be with the latest RMA proposals or the attempted entrenchment of Three Waters, there is either a lack of competence or a lack of care from the Ministers involved. We call on Minister Parker to front up and justify himself at one of our public meetings.

After the success of the Stop Three Waters roadshow last year, the Taxpayers’ Union is hitting the road once again for a four-week, nationwide roadshow to hear and highlight the concerns of ratepayers and councils threatened by the Government’s proposed replacement to the Resource Management Act.

The itinerary will see Taxpayers’ Union team members visiting 30 local centres in a ‘Hands Off Our Homes: Stop Central Planning Committees’-branded van, from Invercargill to Whāngarei. The team will meet mayors, councillors, and MPs and ask them to sign a pledge to do everything within their power to resist the Government’s reforms.

Ratepayers at every stop are invited to meet the Taxpayers’ Union team and hear the commitments of local politicians to oppose these proposals. Local mayors, councillors, MPs will also be invited to address the public meetings.

Nine of the events will be jointly hosted with our friends at Federated Farmers who have been at the forefront of the opposition to the proposed planning reforms.

The full itinerary can be viewed here.

Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, said:

“New Zealanders are rightly frustrated with the cumbersome Resource Management Act, which restricts how we use our land and has fuelled a serious infrastructure and housing shortage, but this proposed replacement will make the situation much worse.

“Not content with seizing water assets from local communities, the Government is now proposing to grab planning powers from local councils and transfer them to fifteen unaccountable, undemocratic, so-called Regional Planning Committees. At this rate there won’t be much left for your council to do.

“These changes will significantly reduce local control over decisions affecting communities while introducing many new and undefined concepts that will likely lead to legal challenges through the courts. And this increased red tape and bureaucracy will simply lead to higher building costs for everyone.”

North Island

Wellington @ 7 June, 6PM
Academy Galleries
1 Queens Wharf, Wellington CBD, Wellington, 6011

Lower Hutt @ 8 June, 10AM
26 Laings Rd, outside the Council offices

Masterton @ 8 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Lansdowne House
15 Keir Crescent, Lansdowne, Masterton, 5810

Palmerston North @ 9 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Palmerston North Community Leisure Centre - The Neville Butler Exhibition Hall
569 Ferguson Street, Terrace End, Palmerston North, 4410

Whanganui @ 10 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
War Memorial Centre - The Concert Chamber
Watt Street, Whanganui, 4500

Hastings @ 11 June, 11:30AM
207 Lyndon Road East, outside the Council offices

Napier @ 11 June, 3PM
159 Dalton Street, outside the Council offices

Taupō @ 12 June, 12:30PM
Corner of Ferry Road & Redoubt Street

New Plymouth @ 13 June, 10:30AM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Pukekura Function Centre - La Mer Lounge
New Plymouth Raceway, Rogan Street, Pukekura, New Plymouth, 4310

Te Awamutu @ 13 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Te Awamutu Golf Clubs
2293 Kihikihi Road, Te Awamutu 3800

Hamilton/Mystery Creek Fieldays @ 14-17 June, 8:30AM - 5:00PM Wednesday-Friday 8AM - 4PM on Saturday
Rural Living Marquee, 125 Mystery Creek Road

Rotorua @ 18 June, 1PM
Outside Rotorua Museum/Bathhouse
Government Gardens, Oruawhata Drive, Rotorua 3046

Tauranga @ 19 June, 6PM
Classic Flyers Museum Hangar
9 Jean Batten Drive, Mount Maunganui 3116

Auckland @ 20 June, 6:30PM
Ellerslie Event Centre - The Guineas Room 1
100 Ascot Avenue, Ellerslie, Auckland 1050

Pukekohe @ 21 June, 12:15PM
Pukekohe Indian Community Centre, 
59 Ward Street, Pukekohe, 2120

Mangawhai @ 22 June, 10AM
The Hub shops, 6 Molesworth Dr, outside the Council offices

Whangārei @ 22 June, 1.30PM
Town Basin, outside Claphams Clock Museum
32 Dent Street, Quayside, Town Basin, Whangārei 0111

South Island (Completed)

Christchurch @ 29 May, 6PM
Waimairi Road Community Centre
166 Waimairi Road, Ilam, Christchurch, 8041

Rolleston @ 30 May, 10:30AM
56 Tennyson Street, outside the Te Ara Ātea Library

Ashburton @ 30 May, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Ashburton Club & MSA
266 Havelock Street, Ashburton 7700

Wānaka @ 31 May, 12PM
47 Ardmore Street, outside the Council offices

Alexandra @ 31 May, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Alexandra Community Centre, Memorial Theatre
15 Skird Street, Alexandra, 9320

Balclutha @ 1 June, 11AM
South Otago Town & Country Club
1 Yarmouth Avenue, Balclutha, 9200

Gore @ 1 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Croydon Lodge - The Trust Room and Lager Bar
100 Waimea Street, Croydon, Gore, 9776

Invercargill @ 2 June, 6PM
Co-hosted by our friends, Federated Farmers
Invercargill Workingmen's Club - Corinthian Conventions Centre
154 Esk Street, Invercargill, 9810

Dunedin @ 3 June, 11:30AM
The Octagon

Oamaru @ 3 June, 3:30PM
20 Thames Street, outside the Council offices

Timaru @ 4 June, 10:30AM
2 King George Place, outside the Council offices

Nelson @ 6 June, 10AM
At the bottom of the Cathedral steps
1 Upper Trafalgar Street, Nelson, 7010

Blenheim @ 6 June, 3:30PM
Seymour Square, 16 High Street, outside the Council offices

This week on Taxpayer Talk, Taxpayers' Union Campaigns Manager, Callum Purves, sits down with ACT Party MP, Simon Court, to discuss the recent Three Waters rebrand, the proposed resource management reforms and what ACT is proposing to solve New Zealand's significant infrastructure and planning problems.

Simon Court is ACT's spokesperson for infrastructure, the environment and local government and has been leading their response to the contentious Three Waters and RMA reforms. Prior to becoming an MP, Simon was a civil and environmental engineer working both in the private sector and for local government. Simon believes that local control, strong private property rights and the right incentives for councils to make good decisions will be what leads to solving some of our biggest problems going forward. 

Later in the podcast, for our War on Waste segment, Taxpayers’ Union Deputy Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, reveals a 19-month long investigation into the Government’s decision to give millions of taxpayer dollars to a gang-affiliated meth rehabilitation program and the bureaucratic process of simply getting straight answers from officials.

To support Taxpayer Talk, click here

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, feel free to email [email protected] 

You can also listen to Taxpayer Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and all good podcast apps. 

Over the weekend, David Farrar sent an email to our supporter lists about what the Government is currently sneaking through Parliament to replace the Resource Management Act.  Here at the Taxpayers’ Union, we are no fans of the RMA.  But what is proposes is far, far worse.  As a result of enquiries today, we are copying the email for all to see.

Right now the team are working on planning for the campaign to defeat the Central Planning explained below.  The catch 22 is that it is difficult to plan when we don’t know what financial resources are available, and we don’t know that because so few Kiwis are even aware of these Bills.  Watch this space through – a campaign will be launching very soon.

I apologise that this is so long – but it is important. While Three Waters was about community/council assets, this post is about a new series of bills going through Parliament right now that will dictate what you can can do with your house, your farm, and your business. And unlike Three Waters, it is getting nearly no media attention.

David Parker's new planning bills are even worse than Three Waters – and apply to your land/house/business

Right now, the Government is sneaking through legislation that is almost identical to Nanaia Mahuta's original plans with Three Waters, but relates to our homes, town planning, consenting, and natural environment.

The short point is, if you thought Three Waters was bad, the Government's proposed replacement to the Resource Management Act is much, much worse. 

While most New Zealanders looked at the Three Waters shambles with horror, Environment Minister, David Parker, was taking notes. He’s decided to replicate the worst elements of the water reforms in his proposed replacement to the Resource Management Act. 

But you won't have read much about this issue in the media. Unlike Three Waters, there's no taxpayer-funded Government ad campaign or even much of a public discussion.

Make no mistake: The Government is trying to sneak this one through. The bills – 891 pages in total – were dumped just before Christmas and the Government closed submissions on Waitangi weekend. That – plus the fact Ministers have deliberately not promoted the bills – has meant that the media is only just starting to wake up to the possible implications of these reforms.

Under this proposed law, powers over planning and when a resource consent is required will be stripped from local councils and handed to 15 new co-governed ‘Regional Planning Committees’. That means the decisions about the building consent for your deck, new home, factory, your farm's water take, and how your city or town is planned will be made by people you cannot vote out. 'Regional Planning Committees' will be tasked with enforcing a litany of costly new rules from Wellington to restrict the way you use your property. 

I need to be clear: The Resource Management Act is broken. Its planning rules have fuelled a housing and infrastructure crisis. But we need to get RMA reform right, and David Parker’s new Soviet-style planning regime is not the answer. Instead of cutting red tape, he's come up with a cure worse than the disease.

Local control will be lost: Instead of elected decision makers, town, city and environmental planning will handed to co-governed Regional Planning Committees before the end of this year

If you thought dealing with silly rules from your local council was bad, wait until it's a co-governed Regional Planning Committee that voters cannot sack making the rules. David Parker wants to take responsibility for planning rules away from our 67 democratically elected local councils and hand it to 15 new co-governed ‘Regional Planning Committees’.

That’s right: First your council lost its responsibility for water asset management, and now it’s losing responsibility for planning. At this rate your Mayor will be responsible for little more than the library collection and the annual Christmas parade! 

Unless we act right now, the law will be passed before this year's election. And with the election result looking so close, the only way to ensure we defeat this is to blow the whistle now, so these proposals become as unpopular as Three Waters.

Think of all the conversations in your local community about zoning rules, intensification, and planning priorities. I'm no fan of my local council, but at least under the current system, voters can hold the decision makers to account. Under this new system, the decision makers will be out of town, beholden to Wellington, and insulated from accountability by layers of bureaucracy.

Each local council – even large metropolitan ones – will have just one representative on the new regional committees. That also means that local voices in, say, Waitaki will be drowned out by other committee members. Decisions over say a proposed geothermal energy plant in Taupo would be made in Hamilton by a co-governed, unaccountable, committee.

The rules even allow the Minister (currently David Parker) to make his own appointments to the Regional Planning Committees so that Wellington has people to ensure that these committees dance to the Government's tune.

And the new committees will be bound by ‘National Planning Frameworks’ issued by the Minister every nine years, dictating comprehensive environmental targets and limits, and rules governing resource allocation from Kaitaia to the Bluff. That means environmental decisions and regional 'quotas' on things like CO2 emissions will be made by Wellington.

We need your support to stop this unaccountable co-governed centralisation by Wellington.

Even more co-governance will make public input meaningless 

Under the proposed regime, all persons exercising planning power must “give effect” to principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. David Parker wants to strictly enforce this rule with three new layers of co-governance: 

1. Unelected appointees from local iwi/hapū will sit on the new Regional Planning Committees with full voting rights. 
    
   • David Parker is trying to say this isn't co-governance as the proposed legislation only requires a minimum of two iwi/hapū representatives and the exact number is up to local communities. But it's not as simple as that. The committees deciding on appointee numbers for local councils and those from iwi will be bound by the principles of the Treaty. A recent Waitangi Tribunal decision makes it explicit that, "nothing less" than a 50/50 split will do in order to satisfy the so-called "partnership" principle.
     
     
2. A new, unelected ‘National Māori Entity’ will put pressure on the new planning committees to ensure that they abide by Treaty principles, and will have priority over public consultation on the new National Planning Frameworks.
   
   
3. At any time, iwi or hapū can produce a Te Oranga o te Taiao (environmental wellbeing) statement, dictating how the Minister of Environment must uphold the “intrinsic relationship” between iwi/hapū and the environment in National Planning Frameworks for which there is no appeal process outlined in the bill.

David Parker is trying to say that these reforms don't involve co-governance, but, as you can see, that is blatantly untrue.

We need your help to make sure New Zealanders know about these Bills, and step up to protect democratic accountability before it is too late.

Higher costs for ratepayers due to bureaucracy and legal minefields

These reforms mean everything from building a new deck to constructing a new hospital or supermarket will be even harder.

The legislation's first reading was snuck through just before the Christmas break. The Government wants to have it passed before this year’s election and only gave the summer holiday period for formal submissions.

Of course, our team worked over summer to get their heads around the 891 pages of legislation and made a submission. But the real fight is the political one: We need to raise public awareness.

If New Zealanders were fully aware about the true implications of David Parker’s power grab, it could turn into a real political headache for the Government just like Three Waters. 

18 months ago, the Taxpayers' Union decided that we had no option but to take on Nanaia Mahuta's Three Waters. Back then the vast majority of Kiwis were backing the Government, as very few understood the downsides of what the Government was doing. It was only after a mammoth campaign, hundreds of events, and thousands of banners, signs, and an advertising blitz across TV, radio and online did the National Party (and the media) catch on to the costs of Three Waters. Three Waters would not be the thorn in the Government's side, had the Taxpayers' Union not led the fight (and supporters like you making the campaign possible with substantial financial support).

Just like we did not let Nanaia Mahuta get away with Three Waters, we cannot let David Parker get away with these even more radical proposals.

We need to put so much political pressure on the Government that David Parker's plans become a liability for Labour’s re-election prospects and are therefore scrapped by Chris Hipkins.

Thank you for your support.

David Farrar Co-founder New Zealand Taxpayers' Union

In the latest edition of Taxpayer Talk, host Peter Williams talks with Federated Farmers’ Paul Melville and Mark Hooper about the proposed new planning and environmental legislation to replace the Resource Management Act.

While there is almost unanimous agreement the much maligned RMA needs to be updated and changed, Federated Farmers have serious doubts the new Natural and Built Environments Bill and its companion Spatial Planning Bill is the way forward.

Also in this edition, a new segment called War on Waste where a member of the Taxpayers' Union staff exposes profligate spending by government or local authorities. This time researcher Alex Murphy has Auckland Council in his sights.

To support Taxpayer Talk, click here

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions feel free to email [email protected] 

You can also listen to Taxpayer Talk on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeart Radio and all good podcast apps.