Latest / Best of Business / Simon Court: ACT MP voices concerns about cultural requirements slowing down construction projects

Transcript

Simon Court: ACT MP voices concerns about cultural requirements slowing down construction projects · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Right now. Remember last week we revealed that Ikea Big
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Store had to consult with seven different Manafenoa groups to
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: build their Sylvia Park store, including inviting them to perform
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: kaakiir and other cultural ceremonies on the site three separate times. Well,
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: the under Secretary for RMA Reform Acts, Simon Court, has
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: gone through some more resource consents and found even more
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: ridiculous examples. One resource content in Central Hawk's Bay requires
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: local HPUO to be invited to give a katakia whenever
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: a native plant or tree is removed. Simon Court is
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: with me now, Hi, Simon.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Good evening, Ryan, So what exactly.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Is have you found in Hawk's Bay?
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Well, right, We've found more mad resource content conditions for
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Solo far in Central Hawks Bay, which include, as you
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: pointed out, inviting Manifena to perform prayers before removing any
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: native trees or plants, and requiring the developer to provide
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: written reports every six months until at least two years
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: after construction's finished, outlining how they can fly with a
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: sixty six page cultural impact assessment and what ongoing reporting
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: around that. What this means is that if solar farms
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: can't get built, or if they get built, but there's
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: all this extra cost that's going to add to your
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: power built. We hear councils and many others saying they
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: want more renewable energy, but then in the resource consenting
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: space they demand ceremonial chanting and spreadsheet level detail about
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: everything a contractor does when they're building and developing the site.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Whose land is it?
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Well, these two sites that we've been looking at this
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: week are both around on in Central Hawks Bay. One
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: is oone private, the other is owned by the local
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: lines company. The private developer was proposing a solar farm
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: that would supply eighteen thousand homes. They're in liquidation because
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: they can't make the economics of their proposal stack up.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: So the question is there are many of these projects
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: that we need to get built, go simply cost more,
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: which is going to add to people's power bills, or
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: just never get built at all. Like one of these
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: projects in Hongwong, it looks.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Like what's the theory. So this one that's on private land,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: it's a private solar farm, on private land is you
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: have the gone bus. But what's the logical the theory
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: of having mana Feno was so involved with the cutter
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: care and stuff would what is the theory.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Will Ryan. It's a wonky theory. And it's called the
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Resource Management Act. And what parts of the Resource Management
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Act say is that planners and decision makers has to
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: give a high level of weight to the Treaty of
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Ways King Principles into other cultural matters when they're coming
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: up with resource consent conditions. Now, we can't get things
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: built in New Zealand if we're going to force the
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: companies to essentially perform ceremonial chanting every time they want
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: to get something built. And that's why Act committed to
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: scrapping the Resource Management We campaigned on that before the
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: last election. We've got that into the National Act Coalition agreement.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: And one of the things I'm working on is delivering
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: a new piece of resource management law that's based on
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: property rights and without this general Treaty Principles clause that
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: drives this kind of insanity.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Have you discussed with the locally about the need for
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: these three separate cut of here.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I haven't personally discussed it with them. But one
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: of the problems we've got is.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Local did the land I mean, did anyone actually just say, hey,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: do we need to do all this stuff? Is as necessary?
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Because I mean they might do they even know? I mean,
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: is this?
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Well? Ryan, I was a civil engineering project manager for
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: nearly twenty five years before I was elected as an
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: act MP, and what I do know is that the
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: kind of questions you've asked, do we even need any
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: of this stuff? Are often asked at the project stage,
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: But once you go to your local council, they'll say, oh, Craigie,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: do you know who the man of Fenway is in
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: your area? And have you consulted with them? And you say, well,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: what interests would they have in a solar farm? Well,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: it turns out, according to council and under the RMA,
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: they do have an interest. And that's why councils keep
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: enforcing all of these conditions on developers. And if you
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: want your resource consent, eventually you're just going to roll
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: over and say yes to it, no matter what the cost.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: And that's why we have to replace the Resource Management
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: Act with the system based on property right. So Christop
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: and I've given us elves to the end of the
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: year to introduce it, and we'll have that legislation into
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: the House ladder this year.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Okay, so later this year when when will at part
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: by the end of by start next year to path.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: We're aiming to have it passed through all stages by
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: the middle of twenty twenty six and implemented in large
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: part immediately, but with a full implementation date of one
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: July twenty twenty seven.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: One July, okay, but by mid twenty twenty six we
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: will have the legislation passed that will put an end
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: to all of this.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: Well, what it's going to do is say whether it
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: was a treaty settlement, and you know, the government has
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: agreed that there are certain ewe or hapu who have
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: a right to have their say at the planning stage,
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: then those rights should be preserved. But when it comes
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to individual consent conditions like the IKEA one you reference
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: before saying up to seven mono fenoma groups have to
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: be consulted and by the way, you have to invite
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: them to every stage of construction, site clearance, earthworks, putting
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: the site back together again to say prayers.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: We're not going to have that Simon caught at party MP.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Nice to have you on the program.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks dB, listen live on air
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: go with our podcast on iHeartRadio.