Andrew Dickens: Finally we deal with RMA reform

For as long as I’ve been in talk radio, I’ve been talking to people about RMA reform - and I’ve been in talk radio since 1996. 

The Resource Management Act was introduced in 1991 and it has ballooned into an albatross around our necks.

To comply you need to pay a fortune. To check your compliance authorities, have to spend weeks reviewing your plans. 

So today we learn what comes next.

Now the reason the RMA grew like a cancerous growth around our progress is simple: too many people took too many liberties and caused too much damage. 

Worrying about their margins, they took shortcuts, and then projects failed.

Like so many laws, we had to take into account the lowest common denominator: the developer who did it cheap, did it bad, and then liquidated the company to leave others to clean up the mess.

That experience is why many will not welcome a simplification of the rules today, but the overcompensation for the bad actors has cost us all too much. 

Today I'll be looking for the efficiencies, but also looking for the safeguards to protect us from the cowboys who are far too many in our country these days.

But it’s a mammoth piece of legislation and it’s taken a mammoth effort to review it. Ryan Bridge spoke to a bloke who’s been working on fixing the law for eight years last night. 

I wish Chris Bishop all the best of luck today - the work needs to be done. 

But once again, I beg the developers not to take the piss. Your selfish concern for your bottom line has resulted in this mess, so just stop it. Build it once, build it right, and make it last. 

Care about your legacy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For as long as I've been in talk radio, and
I've been talking to people about RMA reform. And you know,
I first turned up and taught radio back in nineteen
ninety six. It's a long time. The Resource Management Act,
it's been around a long time too, introduced in nineteen
ninety one, and it's fair to say it's ballooned into
being an albatross around our necks. To comply, you need
to pay a fortune to check your compliance. Authorities have

(00:22):
to spend weeks reviewing your plans. That costs a fortune.
So today we're going to learn what comes next. Now.
The reason the RMA grew like a cancer of growth
around our progress is quite simple. Too many people took
too many liberties and caused too much damage and worrying
about their margins, they took shortcuts and then projects failed,
And like so many laws, we had to take into
account those lowest common denominators, the developers who did it cheap,

(00:46):
the developers who did it bad and then liquidated the
company to leave others to clean up the mess, or
the people who built stuff and it fell down, or
the people who built stuff and it polluted the environment.
The experience is why many will not welcome today's simplification
of the rule, but the overcompensation for those bad actors
has cost us all too much. So today I think

(01:08):
we're all looking for efficiencies. We are still looking for
the safeguards to protect us from the cowboys who are
far too many in our countries these days. And apparently
there's going to be some national agency that's going to
overlook particularly the environmental concern. So I wish Chris Bishop
all the best of luck today. The work needs to
be done, but again I beg the developers not to
take the piss. Your selfish concern for your bottom line

(01:30):
has resulted in this mess, so just stop it. Here's
a thing for anybody building anything, whether you're getting a
building consent or a resource consent or anything. Build it once,
build it right, make it last, and care about your legacy.
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