The Primary Production Committee has reported back to Parliament on the Resource Management (Freshwater & Other Matters) Amendment Bill. It has recommended that the Bill be passed with some amendments.

“The majority of the Committee has agreed to retain provisions that exclude Te Mana o te Wai from consenting processes; delay implementation of Significant Natural Areas (SNAs); weaken freshwater regulations; and establish a consenting pathway for new coal mines near inland wetlands or SNAs,” said EDS CEO Gary Taylor.

“EDS strongly opposed those aspects of the Bill. The proposals enable a full-blown assault on freshwater and indigenous biodiversity and take the country further off-track from meeting future climate goals.

“Our detailed analysis confirmed these proposals are unnecessary and we asked that the Bill should not proceed to enactment. It is disappointing that the majority of Committee members has decided to ignore our concerns and push ahead with these changes despite strong opposition from Labour and the Greens.

“There are some positives. The Committee has made recommendations that will, if passed, prevent Ministerial override of the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity and establish a minimum 20-day timeframe for public submissions on changes to national direction.

“However, other changes to current national direction processes are troubling. The Bill (as introduced) included concerning proposals to streamline evaluation reporting requirements. Rather than address those concerns, the Committee has decided to get rid of evaluation requirements for national direction altogether.

“The Government has also used the Select Committee process to introduce amendments to s 107 of the RMA, dealing with freshwater consenting. This process avoids public input because the change was not part of the original Bill.

“Overall, the Bill represents a further unwinding of environmental protections with some minor concessions to submitters including EDS,” Mr Taylor concluded.