New environment law cuts red tape for farmers

Today's release of the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill to replace the Resource Management Act is a red letter day for the agricultural sector, Federated Farmers says.

"The RMA is the single biggest handbrake on growing agricultural productivity and rural economies. It's great to see its end come one step closer," Federated Farmers resource management spokesperson Mark Hooper says.

"When farmers complain about expensive resource consents, unachievable freshwater targets, Te Mana o te Wai, and outstanding natural landscape overlays, these are all things that sit under the RMA legislation.

"Investment, farmer confidence and productivity have been strangled in red and green tape for far too long."

The Government today released two new bills that, once passed into law, will replace the RMA.

"There is lots of good news in this package of law," Hooper says.

"First of all, under the new law most farmers won't need a resource consent. Simply by having a certified Farm Plan they will be viewed as compliant with environmental regulations.

"This makes sense. Farm Plans can achieve much of the same environmental outcomes as a resource consent, without the need to fork out tens of thousands of dollars on expensive planners and lawyers."

The Government has estimated their new laws will nearly halve the current number of consents on the nation's farms.

"Secondly, where a farmer does need a resource consent, there will be a much, much higher bar for these to be notified, which means they're opened up for submissions from others.

"When a consent is notified, farmers have to pay for the expensive hearing. This notification cost is what drives consent costs from the tens of thousands of dollars into the hundreds of thousands."

In addition, there should be far fewer instances of when consultation with iwi on individual resource consents is needed.

Cultural impacts will be assessed when environmental limits are set, meaning the need to assess cultural impacts on every resource consent - sometimes from multiple iwi and hapū - should bea thing of the past.

"The days of farmers effectively having large chunks of their farm confiscated in the form of an SNA - Significant Natural Area, ONL - Outstanding Natural Landscape, or SASM - Sites and Areas of Significance to Māori, are also likely to be severely curtailed."

Where a council effectively confiscates a large part of a farm, there is a requirement to compensate the landowner. This will mean this practice is much rarer, and when it does happen, farmers are fairly compensated, Hooper says.

"Federated Farmers will take time to read through the 700 odd pages of legislation and there will be a few areas where we think further work is needed.

"This is partly what Select Committee is for - to iron out inconsistencies and problem clauses.

"We think the increase in fines and the restrictions on the use of insurance to cover for a breach of resource management rules haven't struck the right balance in the draft legislation.

"This needs to have more nuance so that when harm is done accidentally, for example an effluent system fails due to poor engineering, this is recognised in the regime.

"Restrictions on fines and insurance should only apply where farmers are wilfully negligent [ill get the wording here from beef and lamb]"

Federated Farmers is also worried about proposals to allow trading of natural resources, such as nutrient loss or even freshwater.

"It's near impossible to measure the nitrogen coming off a farm and the Overseer model in particular has been thoroughly criticised for its use in regulation.

"When you can't even accurately measure nitrogen it's very hard to trade it.

The difficulties involved in creating a property right for freshwater are well-known, Hooper says.

"Freshwater falls from the sky and isn't able to be owned or sold.

"On balance, we think these two bills are a major step forward for New Zealand and will dramatically improve the productivity of farming in New Zealand.

"We will work with the Government over the coming months to address any concerns we have in the laws and look forward to the day the RMA is consigned to the dust bin."