Editorial: Having a rural voice
OPINION: The past few weeks have been tough on farms across the North Island: floods and storms have caused damage and disruption to families and businesses.
Some regional councils are charging exorbitant amounts to process consents. On top of that farmers are forking out thousands of dollars on consultants. Also, some consents, applied five years ago are still being processed.
A recent survey by Federated Farmers shows a consenting process in disarray - farmers facing long delays, excessive costs and unreasonable requests for information.
It's fair to say the results of that survey make sobering reading and highlight the true scale and seriousness of the problem. 38% of respondents applied for a resource consent in the past year, indicating frequent engagement, while 31% applied over five years ago, suggesting varied consent durations.
The average spend on regional councils for consents was $17,400 with Auckland ($24,300) and Canterbury ($25,000) being the most expensive regions.
District council costs averaged $9,000 with Canterbury districts ($15,800) the most expensive.
Those numbers paint a damning picture of a system that simply isn't working. Farmers are losing faith in a process that seems to prioritise paperwork over environmental outcomes.
Farmers welcome the Government's intention to reform the Resource Management Act - but that won't happen overnight. Farmers need solutions now.
With thousands of resource consents due to expire over the coming months, the Government needs to act quickly and decisively to give farmers certainty.
Farmers believe a practical solution would be to roll over all existing resource consents to help bridge the gap between the current rules and their soon-to-be-revealed replacement.
This makes sense and let's hope the Government thinks the same.
