Janette Campbell: RMA Advisory Group Chair on the implementation of the new planning system

It's believed new RMA planning systems will relieve at least 50% of unnecessary work from councils.  

The Government is putting a halt on council planning work before the new RMA planning system comes into force. 

It's also moving to force councils to focus on core services and may move to cap future rates increases. 

RMA Advisory Group Chair Janette Campbell told Heather du Plessis Allan councils will still remain very busy. 

She says it’s going to be a big job to get ready for and impliment the new system, and councils will not be twiddling their thumbs. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Government has ordered councils to stop working on their regional plans.
They say it is pointless given that the plans are
being made under the current ROMA and the RMA is
about to be rewritten. Janet Campbell is the chair of
the RMA Expert Advisory Group.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Morning, Jeanette, Good morning, Heather.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Now, I know it's going to likely vary from council
to council, but on average, how much of a council's
work is wrapped up and designing the plan and then
holding the hearings and so on.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
OI, there's a very large workload that councils hold to
advance plans. So this will remove a lot of unnecessary
work from council's books.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
What would you reckon ten percent, thirty, fifty percent?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh, I'm not one hundred percent sure heither, but my
gut feeling would be that it would be at least
fifty percent. Wow.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Really okay, Well, in which case, we're going to have
people sitting around, like a lot of people sitting around
potentially twiddling their thumbs for the next couple of years,
aren't they.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
No doubt that very much. We've got a reform coming
that's going to require a lot of work froms. It's
going to be a big job to get ready for
and implement the new system that is coming, and I
think councils will certainly not be twiddling their thumbs. They'll
be doing a lot of thinking and work.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Are you into the idea of having twenty zones that
are used around the country and councils can pick from
one of those zones?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Look, I love the Minister's optimism about twenty zones. I'm
not sure whether we can pull it off, at least
perhaps not in one hit. We've got I can't remember
the number, but over a thousand at the moment, and
that certainly can be very much reduced. I'd love to
see twenty zones or something really close to it.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Ye, why can't we have as few as twenty zones?

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Oh maybe I'm just unambitious this early in the morning, Heather,
It's just I don't know. We did have a big
reduction in zones when we had the Auckland Supercity come together,
and we had a lot of wrangling over, for example,
different residential zones, and that I think has ultimately been
really successful in his really simplified things. So maybe we

(02:04):
will maybe I'm just not yet, not well caffeinated enough.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
You want to get yourself a cup of coffee and
start to feel the vibes. Jeanette Campbell, RMA Expert Advisory
Group Chair.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
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