Test proposed for RMA

BY PATTRICK SMELLIE

Crucial changes to contested elements of the Resource Management Act are being considered by the select committee overseeing the first phase of its reform.

Following a second report to the committee from an eight-member technical advisory group, a new ''serious question to be determined'' test is likely to be inserted, along with a new way to streamline public consultation and submission processes.

 

However, it remains to be seen whether the committee will accept the advisers' recommendation to go ahead and remove the ''requiring authority'' status of  utilities and national infrastructure owners who  hold the power to require access across land for national networks.

 

The ''serious question'' test responds to submissions on the RMA (Simplifying and Streamlining) Bill which sought a more certain system than initially proposed for ensuring that frivolous and vexatious appeals could not still clog up the consenting process.

 

While a right of appeal had been envisaged as available only by leave of the Environment Court and involving property rights questions, the proposed range of criteria applicable was in fact so broad that ''there would seem to be little that arguably could not satisfy the criteria'', the advisory group concluded.

 

Instead, an alternative set of criteria is proposed which would only allow appeal under circumstances where there is a ''serious question to be determined''. 

 

To get to that point, the party lodging an appeal would also have had to establish they have already submitted on the issue in question and that they have ''an interest in the provision or matter greater than the public general or [are] representing a relevant aspect of public interest''.

 

This would assist in ''reducing the number of appeals of little or no obvious merit'', consistent with the bill's stated streamlining aims.  Under this system, leave of the Environment Court to appeal would no longer be required, but counter-parties would instead be able to seek leave to have such appeals struck out.

 

The advisory group has also proposed a significant change to speed up public consultation and submission processes.  Instead of formally seeking a second round of submissions, affected parties would instead have the right to lodge further submissions following the publication of a summary of the first round's submissions.

 

''Whilst not simplifying the process as much as suggested in the bill, it will at least reduce the time consumed and simplify the administrative tasks imposed on councils,'' the technical group report says.

 

However, numerous submissions from regional and national network operators, including Telecom and Transpower, may ultimately fall on deaf ears.

 

While local government submissions to the select committee showed little appetite for gaining requiring authority, the network operators were extremely reluctant to lose that power, especially if it threatened the ability to roll out nationally consistent networks and meet potentially costly and onerous local requirements instead.

 

The bill proposes that local councils hold requiring authority status and the technical group holds to that view.

 

''We consider much of the criticism misplaced,'' the advisory group report says.  As future major projects' designations are likely to be called in to a Board of Inquiry or directly referred to the Environment Court, many of the disadvantages claimed by those seeking retention of the status quo ''did not carry weight with us''. However, designating authorities and submitters ''should be permitted to require the appointment of independent commissioners''.

The bill is due for report-back to Parliament by the Local Government and Environment select committee by July 27.

 

 

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