Minister not impressed with council

Otago Daily Times

6 hours ago

Resources Minister Shane Jones has challenged the West Coast Regional Council to explain why it exists if it cannot approve mining consents in a reasonable timeframe.
He also repeated his warning to Local Democracy Reporting that the country's regional councils are on borrowed time under the coalition government.
West Coast goldminers have appealed to the minister over long delays as consent applications are processed by environmental consultants in the North Island.
Some miners — including a regional councillor — have waited for more than a year for the go-ahead, and the council recently shut down a gold mine that had been bulk-sampling and waiting 17 months for consent to mine.
Prominent mining adviser Glenys Perkins this week told the minister that her family has put off expanding the gold mine on their farm and hiring two more workers because a consultant wants a drain monitored for a year before granting consent.
Mr Jones told LDR he was not impressed with the council's performance.
"If the council cannot perform this core role, of issuing resource consents in a timely fashion, what is its purpose?
"What other role does it have down there?"
It was distressing to hear of obstacles being placed in the way of miners when the government was trying to grow exports and the West Coast was "riddled" with all sorts of mining opportunities.
"I feel I've acted with a great deal of credibility and supported the Coast, so why can't local government on the West Coast support me?
"Why are local bureaucrats importing people from other parts of New Zealand to protract, delay and undermine the agenda of our government?"
That agenda was to promote growth in the regions, boost economic resilience, generate jobs and dig the country out of the post-Covid fiscal hole, Mr Jones said.
Regional council chief executive Darryl Lew defended the council's record, saying consents staff have been under pressure with high numbers of consent applications including complex ones leading to hearings that were taking up large amounts of staff time.
External consultants have been hired to ease the workload, but he now believed it was time to hire more staff, he said.
Shane Jones said he did not know the fine details of the council's hiring practices, but he judged politicians on their results and outcomes.
"And the politicians and bureaucrats of the West Coast Regional Council, they owe a high level of duty to that element of the community that's ready to risk their money and take their equity into these enterprises."
Processing resource consents and enabling the economy were core business for regional councils, Mr Jones said.
"But regional councils in my view have reached a very low ebb."
Regional councils had been invented to administer the Resource Management Act, and with the abolition of that Act, he believed they did not have a future, Mr Jones said.
"Which is why after the next election there will be local-government rationalisation and the very strong stance we're taking is that there is no longer a purpose for regional councils and I am happy that the prime minister sees that such a development should be a priority, if not for this government then the next."
With the RMA split into two new Acts, people working for regional councils would no doubt end up playing some kind of role in a reformed level of regional governance, the minister said.
There were already examples of regional and district councils being fused together (in unitary authorities) and after the election there would be a host of options.
Councils would need critical mass and a capital base to cope with changing weather, and higher expectations from the community about how to adapt to climatic challenges, the minister said.
"I accept a lot of council leaders may be reluctant to openly identify options that might spell their demise, but I just want them to know after next election, we'll do that on their behalf."
— Lois Williams, Local Democracy Reporter
— LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.