Paula Thompson BOP Regional Councillor www.boprc.govt.nz

The Government has announced its intentions to reform the Resource Management Act. At first blush, and without seeing the actual legislative changes proposed, it sounds a bit like a ‘curate's egg' – good in parts.

Some of the intended reforms are pragmatic – like making relatively simple planning and consenting processes simpler and cheaper. The Government has also made it clear that it wants fewer regional and district planning documents, so that access to information is easier and less complex to interpret and implement.

That all seems logical and could have happened under existing laws, had there been a will to do so. Other intentions, however, are attracting criticisms with concerns that the weighting between development considerations and environmental impacts and effects may be changing and leaning more to favouring the development side.

There are also concerns that we must be careful to balance risks of lesser regulation with potential consequences. It's hard to say exactly what the consequences may be until the ink is on the paper, and there has been rigorous examination of the changes and their potential and likely consequences.

The Resource Management Act has been enacted for about 23 years. It has put protection and enhancement of New Zealand's environment to centre stage. We have now had more than two decades of getting a far better grip on environmental consequences and the need to balance our natural infrastructure with growth and development.

However, the country, and particularly regions of NZ, need to be able to grow and develop. The key is to finding ways to be able to do that, by providing opportunities for growth, while protecting and enhancing our waterways, air and soil that provide us with our life's needs. This means having strategic and innovative thinking around potential opportunities that leverage from our natural advantages. It makes sense –at least to me – that Tauranga could become a research and innovation centre for marine-related activities.

We need a balanced and strategic approach to ensure a sustainable future.