Andrew Dickens: Finally we deal with RMA reform - Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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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