Unitary authorities do not have a good record in environmental management and would be a poor model for any changes to the Resource Management Act, according to Environment Southland Chairman Stuart Collie.
He was commenting on the report of the Technical Advisory Group set up by the Minister for the Environment to recommend changes to the RMA.
While Environment Southland generally supported proposals to streamline the Act, the group’s views on governance did not find favour with councillors, nor did its finding that regional councils were dominated by farmers and generally underperforming in environmental management and compliance activities. The advisory group has floated the idea that city and district councils could take over environmental functions.
Mr Collie took a dim view of that and said he had compared Environment Southland’s record of enforcing environmental standards with some of the unitary authorities already in existence.
Gisborne District Council had not taken a single prosecution for breaches of the Resource Management Act since it was set up in 1989, Mr Collie said. Tasman District had brought six. Environment Southland, by comparison, had taken 48 cases to the Environment Court.
The other two unitary authorities – Nelson City and Marlborough District Councils – both covering Environment Minister Nick Smith’s home patch – had not replied to his request for information.
“When it comes to comparing our effectiveness, we should be standing up and saying that there are some regional councils that are performing well and exceed what the TAG report uses as a measure of efficiency,” Mr Collie said. Deteriorating water quality was a problem all over New Zealand, and in Southland the council was committed to making improvements with the resources it had available.
Cr Maurice Rodway said that regional councils had to work together to rebut the flaws in the TAG report. “We have to show that regional councils have been delivering the goods, not just in taking people to court but by improvements in water quality.” Contamination from point-source pollution had been tackled very effectively in Southland a few years ago.
Cr Ali Timms said she was optimistic that the Council would be able to put together a good case to rebut the TAG’s findings. The Government had already adopted several of Environment Southland’s submissions on improvements to the Resource Management Act, judging by the Amendment Bill now before Parliament, and the Council should aim to do the same for the review of governance issues.
Chief Executive Ciaran Keogh said most of the problems with the implementation of the RMA were caused by the previous Government’s inaction and lack of leadership in resolving issues that were beyond the resources of individual councils to tackle. “This is clearly identified in the TAG report,” he said. “National policy is the foundation upon which all subsequent action by councils should have been based. When there is no policy foundation, structural failure is inevitable.”
Councillors will make a submission on the Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Bill 2009.

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