Mark Hooper: Federated Farmers RMA Spokesperson on the changes coming to the Resource Management Act

Federated Farmers is welcoming proposed changes to the Resource Management Act. 

The Government's released three discussion documents proposing amending 12 current national directions and four new ones. 

They include changes to freshwater management, regulation of farming practices and revising mine consent processes. 

Mark Hooper, their RMA Spokesperson, told Mike Hosking that while the guidelines are complex and there’s a lot to wade through, the intent here is very much to get a simpler and better outcome. 

The rewritten Resource Management Act isn’t expected to come until next year, so he says the intent of this release is to hopefully provide a bit more guidance and certainty for local authorities, so they can get on with their planning.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Massive change speaking, which is coming to the way we
do a whole bunch of stuff as part of a
wider RAMA reform. Now the guidelines, which I waded my
way through yesterday, God, it's complex. The guidelines deal with housing, mining,
and agriculture, the big ones for farmers being the removal
of restrictions on non invasive grazing and wetlands, removal of
land use capability. Basically, it's designed to make everything easier anyway.

(00:21):
Mark Hooper is the Federated Farmer's RAMA spokesperson. He's with
us Mark morning, Good morning. If I gave you a
spot quiz here from questions I asked myself yesterday, one
hundred questions. How many reckon you get out of one hundred?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Pretty low? Pretty low.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
It's like mind bogglingly complex and detail.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Doesn't it It is? Although the irony here is, of
course that the intention is to make it less complex,
less expensive, and more predictable. So there is a lot
to weighe through. There's a lot to work out in there,
but one hopes that what they the intent here is
very much to get a better outcome.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
Yeah, I did get the overarching view that they're trying
to make things simpler, and that what you had to
once apply for talk to someone about fill out some paperwork,
you can just go ahead and do. This's just what
I'm trying to say. There's a lot of this stuff changing,
isn't there?

Speaker 2 (01:18):
There is a lot of this stuff changing. I think
I think it's probably in terms of understanding the bigger picture.
It's important to realize that this is another step in
a process that has been going on since the beginning
of this coalition government. You know, they repelled the Natural
Built Environment Act from the previous government. They introduced the
fast Track legislation, they did RMA Amendment Bill one, RMA

(01:40):
Amendment Bill two. They're still working on the rewrite of
the Resource Management Act, but that's not expected until next year,
and so in the meantime you have a whole lot
of secondary legislation in the form of national policy statements.
It's under that primary leedgeation and at the moment it's

(02:03):
even more confusing because local authorities and things are not
sure where those national policy statements and things sit until
we've got the new legislation. So the intent of this
release is to help you, hopefully provide is hopefully to
provide a little bit more guidance and certainty for local
authorities so that they can get on with some of

(02:25):
their planning responsibilities. In the meantime, where we're waiting for
that you Act to come through.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Broad A question for the weekend, Mark, how good is
being a farmer at the moment, whether you're in dairy
or beef or getting twenty percent off your tractor. I
mean you've got to be feeling good.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely, the positivities really increased. Obviously, Fonterra
came out with an announcement for next season, which is
still looking strong. Beef prices are still holding really well.
You know, most areas have kind of recovered from drought conditions,
and you know, the inflationary costs are under control a

(03:03):
little bit. And then yeah, as you say a little
bit around appreciation and stuff there, it's looking good for
further investment.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
Good to hear well, I mate, you have a good weekend.
Mark Hooper, who's the Federated Farmer's RIMA spokesperson. I would
suggest you read it and what I found funny yesterday
is there it's open to public consultation. I got no
idea who's going to read it all? And be appraised
enough of what they're trying to do in terms of
detail to articulate and be knowledgeable enough to go in

(03:28):
there and go, here's what I think, because man, it's complex.
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