Latest news with #RussellPalmer
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Govt launches Resource Management consultation
The government is billing its Resource Management consultation as the country's biggest ever change to national direction. It comes hot on the heels of the fast track changes and leading up the full RMA replacement due next year. Announcements were released under six ministers' names on everything from housing to mining to agriculture - and some of it's got environmental groups up in arms. Political reporter Russell Palmer has more.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Govt outlines sweeping changes to RMA rules
By Russell Palmer of RNZ Sweeping changes to the rules governing councils' oversight of everything from housing - to mining - to agriculture - under the Resource Management Act are being released to the public for feedback. The government has released discussion documents covering 12 national policy statements and similar instruments, with the aim of having 16 new or updated ones by the end of the year - ahead of legislation replacing the RMA next year. The consultation covers three main topics: infrastructure and development, the primary sector and freshwater. It is open from May 29 to July 27. The topics cover a wide range of portfolios, the early afternoon announcement fronted by RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay, Energy Minister Simon Watts, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard, and Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. "The changes we're now proposing to national direction under the existing RMA give effect to a range of coalition commitments, can be done quickly and relatively easily, and will help unclog the growth arteries of the economy," Bishop said. "Next year we'll replace the RMA with new legislation premised on property rights. Our new system will provide a framework that makes it easier to plan and deliver infrastructure and energy projects, as well a protecting the environment." Freshwater The changes would "rebalance Te Mana o te Wai to better reflect the interests of all water users", with councils able to "tailor" monitoring and management to local conditions. Councils would be directed to consider how they could help ensure stable domestic food supply, including providing for crop rotation in regional plans. Crop rotation within catchments could be allowed without a consent. Water storage rules would change aiming to ensure water flows during dry periods, protect against climate-change-caused drought, and reduce the need for extraction from natural rivers and lakes. Wetland regulations would change aiming to protect water filtration, flood control, and habitat for diverse species. The definition of "wetland" would be amended, now excluding unintentionally created "induced" wetlands, and allowing farming activities like irrigation, on-farm water storage and fencing considered "unlikely" to have an adverse effect, while constructed wetlands would have a new objective, standards, and consent pathway. Councils would no longer need to map wetlands by 2030, but Source Water Risk Management areas would now need to be mapped "to help safeguard drinking water sources from contamination". The government is also proposing to "simplify" requirements for fish passages to reduce the administrative burden "while still providing appropriate protection". Changes to rules for synthetic fertiliser are also proposed. Primary sector Highly productive land changes would extend the timeframes to 2027/28, see the removal of the "Land Use Capability 3" category and trial the use of "special agricultural areas". Grazed beef cattle and deer in low intensity farms would no longer need to be kept out of wetlands. In forestry, councils would lose the ability to set harder controls, slash would need to be planned for and - above a certain size - removed, and low-intensity harvesting will be permitted by default if "any relevant forest planning requirement is complied with". Restrictions on mines and quarries in wetlands would be loosened. Aquaculture changes aim to streamline consenting for activities and research, and allow small structures in coastal marine areas with no consent. Infrastructure and development Granny flats of up to 70sqm, and papakāinga of up to 10 homes would be allowed without a consent on specific land zones. Papakāinga would also allow commercial activities of up to 100sqm, conservation activity, accommodation for up to eight guests, along with education, health, sports, marae, urupā and māra kai facilities. Medium papakāinga of up to 30 homes would be considered a "restricted discretionary" activity, with those of more than 30 units becoming "discretionary" activities. Energy changes include new policies on supporting the needs of the electricity network and management of environmental interests, and another new policy on recognising and providing for Māori interests in electricity transmission, and other changes. These would allow more routine work on electricity networks, establish a National Grid Yard and Subdivision Corridor, and scrap consenting for distribution and EV charging infrastructure. A new policy for natural hazards - covering flooding, landslips, coastal erosion, coastal inundation, active faults, liquefaction and tsunami - would cover all environments and zones including coastal environments, directing councils to take a risk-based approach and assess risk based on "likelihood and consequence". A definition of "significant risk" using a risk matrix would be provided, with councils directed to also use the best available information when making decisions. In telecommunications, new poles would be allowed by default in more areas, with restrictions in the road reserve also removed. Renewable energy generation, temporary facilities and connection lines to heritage buildings for telecommunications would no longer need consenting.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget: NZers to feel effects of some changes immediately
economy politics about 1 hour ago The government delivered its second Budget on Thursday, and New Zealanders will start to feel the effects of some of the changes almost immediately. Political reporter Russell Palmer has more.
Otago Daily Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Opposition slams Budget 'austerity and cuts'
By Russell Palmer of RNZ Austerity and cuts are the themes the opposition is focusing on in its attacks on the government's Budget, with the Prime Minister focusing his own energies on hitting back at the Greens. The Budget makes about $5.3 billion in savings each year for the next four years - about half of that from the pay equity changes - with about $6.7b in new spending going largely to health, education, law and order and defence. It also claws back money by halving government KiwiSaver contributions, tightening welfare for 18-19 year olds, and fully means-testing the Best Start childcare payment. Finance Minister Nicola Willis denied it was an austerity budget, saying it was instead "responsible". But Labour criticised it as a "masterclass in making the wrong decisions for New Zealanders", saying the government was taking $11b from lifting women's pay, stealing $66,000 from young people's retirement savings, and putting those savings towards landlords, multinationals and tobacco companies. "With the cost-of-living pressure reaching crisis point, this government is offering some families a measly $7 a week," Opposition leader Chris Hipkins said. "That won't even buy a block of butter. "Last Budget, Nicola Willis made a choice to borrow $12 billion for tax cuts, which haven't delivered for Kiwis. It's time she took some responsibility... she is choosing austerity to make up for her poor fiscal management." 'The budget that left women out' Hipkins' speech in Parliament particularly targeted the government's pay-equity changes, saying Willis' pre-budget statements got it half right - that it was a "scramble without the lollies". "This is the Budget that will be remembered as the Budget that left women out," he said, to cries of 'shame' from fellow opposition MPs. "This is the Budget that said to working Kiwi women they are worth less," Labour Finance Spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said, despite all the promises, Kiwis were still going backwards. "Some families will no longer get Best Start, which helps families buy a can of formula and a box of nappies each week. On top of that, 61,000 families will now be worse [off] by an average of $43 per fortnight. "Rates and insurance have gone up, energy prices are high. People aren't getting the support they were promised with childcare. "Unemployment is scheduled to rise. Thousands of people have lost their jobs under National and are choosing to head overseas." The PSA Worker's Union was also scathing, calling it a "wage theft budget" that would take more than $12 billion from women. National secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said it exposed the government's naked theft of wages from thousands of underpaid women to pay for tax cuts for landlords. It was a budget paid for by taking $60 million a week from people like care and support workers among others, she said. Fitzsimons called on the government to sit down with workers, unions, employers and pay equity experts in a proper select committee process and come up with a new framework. 'Backward step for Aotearoa' Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spent the first eight and a-half minutes of his speech attacking the opposition, particularly the Greens' alternative Budget proposals and Hipkins' response to it. "Mr Speaker, hasn't it been a shambolic year for the Labour Party, hasn't it?," he began. "Did he actually rule out the wealth tax? "Did he rule out the inheritance tax? Did he rule out the trust tax, did he take that off the table? "No, and could he rule out an income tax raid that sees nurses being worse off under a Labour-Green budget? No, he didn't do that either." Luxon later said the 2025 Budget got the basics right and put the country back on the path to surplus, but continued attacking the opposition, while talking up his own government's actions. Greens co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick criticised that in her own speech. "Isn't it telling that, in the Prime Minister's speech, he spent the majority of his time talking about our Green Budget and not his own," she said. The Greens said the government's approach represented a significant step backwards for Aotearoa, adding fuel to the climate and inequality fires. "Resilient energy supply means investing in distributed renewable energy, not burning public money to subsidise new gas fields and fossil fuel executive profits," Swarbrick said. "Somehow even more bewildering, these very moves could compromise our Free Trade Agreements with the UK and EU. So much for 'responsible economic managers'. Co-leader Marama Davidson said the Budget was bad news for people and planet. "A Green government will do things differently," she said. "Instead of opening gas fields in the middle of the climate crisis, pushing people into poverty and punishing them for it, we will rapidly reduce emissions, reduce the cost of living and improve our quality of life." Focus on essential services - ACT In a statement, ACT's David Seymour said the Budget saved money to invest in essential services. "ACT would support leaner spending still, but our influence has ensured this Budget grows government at less than half the rate of inflation," he said. "When the government's share of spending reduces, there is more left for everyone else and future generations aren't irresponsibly saddled with debt. Above all, this is a Budget that understands wage growth doesn't come from the bureaucracy or court cases - it comes from economic growth." He pointed to funding for his Regulatory Standards Bill, the 20% capital expensing policy and the pay equity changes as ACT wins. "Brooke van Velden's work, along with smaller savings throughout the Budget, has made investment in basic services possible. A significant uplift in defence capability, better attendance services, after-hours healthcare, faster courts, stronger youth justice facilities and a shift from three-month to 12-month prescriptions have all been made possible. "Of course, there are many other savings. The reduction in RNZ funding should focus the organisation on high-quality news, the way its competitors are forced to do in challenging times for the industry. "In cutting waste and prioritising spending to enable growth, Budget 2025 does not go as far as ACT would like, but it does go further than it would without ACT."
Scoop
21-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Labour Slams ‘Big Tax Breaks' For Tech Giants As Government Ditches Digital Levy
Article – RNZ Labour says the government's decision to dump plans for a digital services tax is a tax break for tech giants like Facebook and Google. Russell Palmer, Political Reporter Labour says the government's decision to dump earlier work on a digital services tax is a tax break for tech giants like Facebook and Google. The government has confirmed it is removing the bill from its legislative agenda. It would have imposed a 3 percent tax on digital services for New Zealand users starting in January this year. Chris Hipkins told reporters at Parliament scrapping it would not have been a priority or the savings from pay equity claims in a Labour Budget. 'We already know where some of that money's going – it's going to tax cuts for landlords, tax breaks for tobacco companies; just today we found out it's hundreds of millions of dollars are going to tax breaks for multinational tech firms like Google and Facebook.' Labour, using forecasts from the Half-Year Economic and Fiscal Update in December, calculated the tax would have brought in about $479m over the next four years – starting from January 2026 – and $146m a year after that. 'Frankly, paying Kiwi women properly would be my priority,' Hipkins said. 'I think this government should stand up to New Zealand – I don't think giving big tax breaks to Google and Facebook is how we should be trying to ingratiate ourselves with Donald Trump's administration.' Revenue Minister Simon Watts, announcing the move in a statement on Tuesday, said the previous Labour government had introduced the bill in 2023 because of a perceived lack of progress from other countries in developing a similar measure – but the situation had since changed. 'A global solution has always been our preferred option, and we have been encouraged by the recent commitment of countries to the OECD work in this area,' he said. 'New Zealand has long supported, and benefited from, collective action and the global rules-based system. By focusing on a global solution, it will enable an agreed, consistent outcome across participating countries.' Watts said a multi-lateral process would be a more enduring model. 'Our assessment is, is there a better process to deal with the underlying challenge out there, and as a basis we've made a decision to take away the DST Bill that was put on the order paper.' He said Inland Revenue remained focused on compliance and integrity, including for offshore customers. Hipkins however said he had seen 'no evidence whatsoever that there's going to be an international solution to that'. 'Frankly it's not right that Google, Facebook and other big tech companies aren't paying their fair share of tax whilst other New Zealanders are being asked to pay more, and low-paid Kiwi women are basically being told that they're not going to be paid fairly.'
