Central government is the RMA’s weakest link

Wellington (23 March 2015): Central government needs to fulfil its long-neglected Resource Management Act obligations if it wants to boost mining activity and free communities from the stifling regulations that are choking off economic development in the rural regions.

That is the main finding of From Red Tape to Green Gold, the second report in a two-part series by public policy think tank The New Zealand Initiative, which examines how regulation has prevented almost any form of mineral development in a country that ranks among the richest in the world on measures of resource endowment.

The report, written by Research Fellow Jason Krupp, lays much of the blame at the feet of central government, which for decades has neglected its duty to provide leadership over matters of national importance.

“After almost a quarter century under the RMA, we only have four national policy statements and five national environment standards in place, and none of these specifically cover any export sector, let alone a highly technical one like mining,” said Krupp.

“In the absence of this guidance, it is somewhat galling that central government is frustrated when mining applications like Bathurst Resources spend years in court when the problem originates in Wellington.”

Chief Executive of the Buller District Council Paul Wylie, who wrote the foreword for the report, noted that New Zealand is a trading nation, and needed to pay its way in the world through exports, something the RMA, in its current form, made increasingly difficult to do.

“Without the wealth from the provinces, Auckland has no role as a service centre,” said Wylie. “This comment is not anti-Auckland. We do need a world class city, and to get that we need prosperous provinces producing increasing exports.”

In addition to recommending that the government begin immediately developing policy statements and environmental standards for the mining sector, the report also urges officials to provide central guidance on landscapes of national significance and ecological offsets.

As it stands, significant landscape objections are primarily lodged once a consent application has been made. A mandate to pre-determine local areas of importance, and policy toolsets with which to do this, would steer mining development to where it is appropriate, thereby reducing wasted time and cost.

A comprehensive ecological offset regime would also ease tensions in the resource space, giving communities the assurance that any impact on the environment from mining would be compensated elsewhere by investments in the conservation estate.

This policy work is likely to take years to complete, which is why the Initiative recommends that central government provide greater resources to councils from its royalty stream when assessing highly technical mining applications.

“The Productivity Commission’s research shows that councils struggle under the complexity and cost of the RMA,” said Krupp. “Providing funding for mining consents is a temporary fix while work on the real reforms is underway. It will however allow small local councils to improve their decision making by hiring in experts, meaning that projects that were in the too-hard basket now get considered.”

Overall, the report noted that the RMA is dated when compared to other best practice mining regimes, and called on policymakers to start modernising the legislation to allow the country to better compete with other jurisdictions for mining investments.

Krupp said Australia’s minerals regime could serve as a template for New Zealand, as science had a far greater voice in the process, and it consistently produced better environmental outcomes according to an Australasian mining regulation survey.

Download the report here.

View author Jason Krupp discussing resources here.

ENDS

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