Editorial: Getting the RMA overhaul right
OPINION: Making it easier to get things done while protecting the environment - that's the Government's promise when it comes to the overhaul of the problematic Resource Management Act (RMA).
OPINION: New data out last month shows why farmers want the broken Resource Management System fixed, quickly.
Councils are processing fewer new resource consents, doing so more slowly than ever, while at the same time employing a record-high number of staff to do it. That’s according to the Ministry for the Environment’s National Monitoring System data report for 2022-23.
During the 12 months, the proportion of new resource consents being notified remained below 2.5%. At the same time, the median processing time for new resource consents increased from 46 working days to 57 working days and councils employed their highest number of full-time equivalent staff for resource management. A total of 2262 staff were employed across all of New Zealand’s councils, nearly 400 more than the 1891 staff employed in 2020-21.
According to Federated Farmers, all the key trends continue to go in the wrong direction and shows just how badly the current resource management system is serving New Zealanders.
Feds spokesperson for RMA reform, Mark Hooper points out that numbers don’t lie.
“We have a problem with the RMA, and it needs urgent attention,” Hooper says.
Farmers are rightly urging the Government not to take the foot off the gas when it comes to RMA reforms. The Government agrees that the current process for making or amending national direction is unnecessarily onerous, costly, and takes too long. A lot of on-farm projects get caught up in lengthy and expensive litigation.
Resource consents should be limited to those activities that are truly unique. Everyday farm activities can be managed more efficiently through farm plans, farmers say.
As Federated Farmers says, the country needs a new resource management framework to drastically reduce the number of resource consents Kiwis are subject to. Replacing the RMA is the most meaningful long-term economic reform this Government can deliver for farmers.
Among the regular exhibitors at last month’s South Island Agricultural Field Days, the one that arguably takes the most intensive preparation every time is the PGG Wrightson Seeds site.
Two high producing Canterbury dairy farmers are moving to blended stockfeed supplements fed in-shed for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to boost protein levels, which they can’t achieve through pasture under the region’s nitrogen limit of 190kg/ha.
Buoyed by strong forecasts for milk prices and a renewed demand for dairy assets, the South Island rural real estate market has begun the year with positive momentum, according to Colliers.
The six young cattle breeders participating in the inaugural Holstein Friesian NZ young breeder development programme have completed their first event of the year.
New Zealand feed producers are being encouraged to boost staff training to maintain efficiency and product quality.
OPINION: The world is bracing for a trade war between the two biggest economies.
OPINION: Should Greenpeace be stripped of their charitable status? Farmers say yes.
OPINION: After years of financial turmoil, Canterbury milk processor Synlait is now back in business.