The next steps in the Bluegreen agenda

Environmental Defence Society annual conference

Aotea Centre, Auckland

Thank you for the opportunity to speak at your conference today – the second EDS conference I have addressed as Minister for the Environment.

As the Prime Minister outlined yesterday the Government is committed to a carefully balanced agenda of both environmental and economic goals. It is this Government’s view that the environment and the economy must work hand in hand.

I cannot overstate the importance of this balanced approach because it is at the core of our Bluegreen philosophy.

The easy options are to get economic gains at the expense of the environment or environmental gains at the expense of the economy. Neither of these choices will work for New Zealand long term. We need to be smarter in working out those ways we can grow our economy and lift our environmental management in tandem.

Today I’ve been asked to highlight the next steps in the Bluegreen agenda and outline the Government’s future direction.

I’m also pleased to be able to announce Cabinet decisions from Monday on our next phase of reforms around the EPA.

First I want to reflect on some of the achievements from this busy 18 months of reform in the environment and climate change portfolios.

I believe we would all agree that New Zealand’s environmental management systems must efficiently and effectively protect our environment from harm.

Although the RMA was a groundbreaking piece of legislation when it was first enacted, certain aspects of the Act had come over time to constrain businesses and raise costs for little discernable environmental advantage.

That is why, within 100 days of being elected, the Government introduced a bill to simplify and streamline the Resource Management Act.

We made a number of changes, including allowing direct referral of resource consents to the Environment Court, incentives for councils to process consents on time, sanctions to punish the abuse of the RMA process for anti-competitive ends and a better process for applications for nationally significant projects.

We also significantly increased the fines for non-compliance differentiating between the corporate and individual offender.

This first stage of reform also established a transitional Environmental Protection Authority to sit within the Ministry for the Environment while its powers and final form were decided.

The work of this body has already begun - with the first national consent application for Contact Energy's proposal for the Tauhara II Geothermal Development Project currently going through the process.

I will talk more about the EPA shortly.

Another achievement has been the Government’s redesign and implementation of the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme.

We were determined to create a better balance between the economy and the environment while honouring not only our international commitments under the Kyoto Protocol but those that we made to voters during the election campaign.

We’ve halved the cost to business and households. We’ve removed the disincentives for businesses to grow and invest and ensured that small and medium businesses are not discriminated against in the allocations to trade-exposed emissions intensive businesses.

As a small trading nation it is in New Zealand’s long-term interests to have climate change policy that protects our clean, green brand while growing our economy.

Doing our bit now to curb emissions growth puts us in the right space long term to protect our brand and retain and grow market access.

It is also our view that early adoption is better than a harder shock further down the track. That is why we think our moderate ETS is the right way forward.

After climate change, fresh water is the Government’s second highest environmental priority.

As I unveiled at your national conference last year, the Government’s New Start for Fresh Water has brought a new approach of collaboration to address the seemingly intractable problems around fresh water management through the establishment of the Land and Water Forum.

I acknowledge EDS’s role in initiating this forum.

In New Zealand there is competition for access to water between farmers, electricity generators, municipal water suppliers, conservationists and recreational users. To get enduring change, they need to be involved in the long-term solutions and that’s exactly what the Land and Water Forum process does.

As you will have heard from Alistair Bisley yesterday, the Forum has made progress on a number of fronts and will make recommendations to the Government later this year.

Nowhere in New Zealand is the debate about water as heated as it is in Canterbury. In March this year it was a big call for the Government to replace Environment Canterbury’s Council with commissioners and grant these commissioners special powers to better manage Canterbury’s water.

The Government had little option but to act in the way it did following a damning independent review of Environment Canterbury which concluded that the gap between the water problem and their capability was “enormous and unprecedented” and that central government intervention was “not only warranted but urgent”.

Water in Canterbury is of huge significance. The region has 70% of New Zealand’s irrigated land and 55% of the nation’s hydro storage. Intensive farming has been growing at a phenomenal rate, particularly dairying. Cow numbers have increased seven fold since 1990. Environment Canterbury failed to manage this growth.

The key issue is that 19 years after the passing of the Resource Management Act Environment Canterbury still does not have an operative water plan for the region.

If NASA can get a man to the moon in nine years then there should be no excuse for Environment Canterbury not being able to deliver a water plan in twice that time.

Implementing a water plan, and issues of improved water quality, water allocation and water storage are the main focus for the Commissioners. Recommendations from the Land and Water Forum will also be crucial to addressing the long term way forward for Canterbury’s water management.

With water, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s why in April I announced new regulations requiring all significant water takes to be metered within a relatively short timeframe.

The regulations will come into effect this year requiring all water takes of more than 20 litres a second to be metered within two years, water takes of more than 10 litres a second to be metered within four years and water takes of more than 5 litres a second to be metered within six years.

This means that by 2016, 98% of all water takes by volume will be metered as compared to 31% at the moment.

Economic analysis shows that water use is worth more than $5 billion per year to the economy and only a small improvement in efficiency will make this investment of about $30 million in water meters well worth while.

Good progress has also been made in implementing the Waste Minimisation Act.

In January this year, $3 million from the waste levy was distributed across 73 councils to support and encourage councils in their kerbside recycling and other waste reduction programmes.

Later this month I will be announcing Government funding of up $6 million worth of initiatives under the Waste Minimisation Fund.

Although the Government is pleased with its progress on these fronts, we are already half way through this parliamentary term, and there is still a large amount we want to achieve.

Let me now outline the next phase of the Government’s environmental reforms.

Environmental Management and the Environment Protection Authority

To achieve our economic and environmental goals, New Zealand requires a world class regulatory system that reflects our environmental values while balancing the interests of the economy with those of the environment.

National’s approach to environmental governance is based on the following Bluegreen objectives:

• Fostering a sense of commitment to a shared national interest in sustainable development

• Effectiveness in getting results

• Long-term consistency

• Reducing delay and cost

• Better use of technical information

Today, I’m pleased to announce the next stage of our reform and a new era for environmental management in New Zealand - the creation of the Environmental Protection Authority as a standalone Crown Entity.

The EPA will be a one-stop shop for environmental regulatory functions – consenting, monitoring and providing technical advice.

As per National’s policy, the Environmental Risk Management Authority or ERMA will be incorporated into the EPA and cease to exist as a separate agency.

The EPA will combine ERMA’s functions under the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act with a wide range of powers including national level administration of the RMA with a focus on the processing of applications for proposals of national significance.

In doing this, the EPA will contribute to providing greater central Government direction on the administration of the environment. It will also pick up all the administrative functions associated with the Emission Trading Scheme, including management of the unit registry.

Other functions of the EPA will include administration of the Ozone Layer Protection Act and restrictions on ozone depleting chemicals, regulations for hazardous waste following from our international obligations under the Stockholm, Rotterdam and Cartagena conventions. It will also be responsible for environmental assessments under the Antarctica Protection Act.

These decisions by Cabinet on Monday on the EPA reflect the Government’s broader view of New Zealand’s environment management.

Combining technical and regulatory skills will reduce inefficiencies and lead to more robust and informed decision-making which can only mean better environmental outcomes for New Zealand.

There is already a line-up of applicants actively engaging with the EPA including major roading initiatives, such as the Waterview and Transmission Gully projects.

Its creation as a standalone Crown Entity will ensure that its decisions are seen as above Ministerial influence.

We want the Ministry for the Environment focused on policy and to be a smaller, politically neutral, smart policy advisor on how New Zealand can lead in best practice environmental management.

Secondly, we want the Environmental Protection Authority as the arms length national regulator of environmental controls doing the day-to-day consenting, administrative and enforcement functions.

While the major decisions on the EPA were taken by Cabinet on Monday, we have one critical area to do more work on. This is in respect of New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone, an area 16 times our land mass.

New Zealand’s marine environment is an integral part of our national identity and contributes significantly to our economy - including fishing, aquaculture, oil and gas, tourism, transport and telecommunication links.

However, our systems for managing environmental impacts fall under different statutes and regulations. Consistent standards and restrictions are not applied across all activities.

It’s not only the environmental risk we run - these factors could also constrain further economic growth from New Zealand’s extensive marine resources.

The Government will explore ways to improve environmental management in the EEZ, which will enable us to benefit from the economic potential of New Zealand’s EEZ while protecting the environment.

In response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Ministry of Economic Development is commissioning an independent study due this year on New Zealand’s health, safety and environmental provisions around minerals activities such as deep sea drilling.

The work will look into whether proposals for EEZ legislation developed under the previous government continue to represent world best practice.

Our ambition is to incorporate the work from this review into our EPA and EEZ legislation to be introduced to Parliament later this year.

Further Phase II RMA reforms

A further step of reform as outlined in National’s Bluegreen agenda is the establishment of an environmental auditing role.

New Zealand stands alone in the OECD as the sole country lacking a legislative basis for environment reporting.

Quality environmental reporting is as important to New Zealand's success as financial reporting. It assists good decision making and helps build a reliable picture of how we are managing our natural capital.

This country’s trade advantage lies in its worldwide reputation for quality products from a quality environment. The lack of such environmental reporting is at odds with this reputation and is on the Government's work programme to be rectified.

This was part of National’s 2008 election policy.

Once the expanded EPA is up and running, we will look to introduce a new Environmental Reporting Act requiring independent five-yearly State of the Environment Reports.

The Government will carefully consider the advice from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, including what role that office could play, in advancing this policy.

The creation of the standalone EPA marks a major milestone in the Government’s resource management reforms. However, it does not mark the end of this process.

It’s a core Bluegreen principle that resource use must be based on sustainability. We depend on the wise management of natural resources for our continuing prosperity. At the same time, a strong economy is essential to enable New Zealanders to protect and enjoy this country’s abundant natural resources.

To lift the long-term performance of the economy, we need to reduce red tape and remove the barriers that prevent resources from being used most productively.

Stage Two of the reforms will continue the focus on managing our resources more effectively and efficiently to deliver both economic and environmental benefits.

In addition to developing the Environmental Protection Authority, the second stage of reform focuses on sector-specific issues - including aquaculture, infrastructure and urban design and the better interaction between the Resource Management Act and other statutes.

I expect to achieve four key outcomes from this phase of reform of the RMA.

These are:

• improved approval times for major infrastructure projects

• better performance from local authorities

• enhanced Māori participation and,

• an increase in confidence from the general public in the RMA framework as they see the benefits of these changes.

Conclusion

In summary, significant progress has been made in implementing the Government’s Bluegreen agenda.

We have taken a measured approach on our reforms to the RMA and have streamlined the Act to benefit both the economy and the environment.

We have not shied away from the challenge posed by climate change and have proceeded with a moderated ETS.

We are addressing the significant issues around water and are awaiting with great interest the report from the Land and Water Forum.

We are putting in place a comprehensive Environmental Protection Authority that will more effectively, efficiently and transparently take over the national regulatory functions of New Zealand’s environment management.

And we are advancing the work on putting more robust systems in place to oversee our exclusive economic zone.

It’s an ambitious programme but there is a lot at stake. No country more than New Zealand needs to get its economic and environmental programme working together.

ENDS

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