ACT Sets the Agenda
act-new-zealand
Tue Mar 14 2017 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
ACT Sets the Agenda
Tuesday, 14 March 2017, 8:06 am
Column: ACT New Zealand
Free Press: ACT’s regular bulletin
ACT Sets the Agenda
ACT set the Superannuation agenda this week. The news from Tuesday seized on our message of intergenerational fairness, specifically the observation that National’s delay in raising the age of entitlement to 67 would cost $58 billion, mostly to be paid in taxes by millennials. The response throughout the week has been strong and supportive, most noticeably at the packed University of Auckland debate hosted by Patrick Gower.
Coming Up – RMA Schimozzle
The Government took parliament, including ACT, by surprise when it brought the Resource Management Legislation Bill back to the House on Thursday afternoon. Free Press believes they have gone off half-cocked, lacking the numbers to pass the bill as they are still negotiating with the Māori Party.
Amy Adams in 2013
When Amy Adams offered up RMA reform in 2013 ACT said it was too weak, and it was. It offered to produce a new set of RMA principles in Part II that would be far more rational than what we have now, but still nothing like a rational land use planning regime. Oh Amy, come back!
Māori Party 1, National 0, Māori -1
The Māori Party has ensured that the 2017 bill, as it came out of Select Committee, will do almost nothing for homeless Māori. It is a shadow of Amy Adams’ 2013 effort to reform the RMA. A higher priority for the Party seems to be the spiritual concerns of Māori elite, who will now be consulted as of right within six months of the bill’s passage on every single plan in the country.
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We Are Not Making This Up
The Māori Party is set up to advocate for Māori, the group of people least likely to own a house and most likely to suffer from substandard housing. Planning restrictions are the single largest reason for the shortage of housing. Given the chance, the Māori Party has not only stopped any meaningful reform going through, they have introduced new people to be consulted, new impediments to building homes.
What Else could they Want?
Nevertheless, Free Press predicts that there won’t be a settlement until the Māori Party have rung more concessions from the ragged Nick Smith. It is going to be an interesting fortnight in the House.
Other Options
In 2016, ACT and United Future buried their differences and went to see John Key, offering him the votes to pass the RMA bill without the Iwi Participation Agreements, with property rights, and making councils compete to issue consents. Not perfect, but better and more certain than what we have now.
Other Options II
RMA reform is critical to getting more homes built, among other things. What’s needed is more radical than even what was proposed in the halcyon days of 2013 when Amy Adams had her hands on the tiller. Like a lot of the issues ACT wishes to advance, it will take a stronger ACT. If ACT had got just 0.7 per cent more at the past election, we could have done far more effective RMA reform by the end of 2015.
The Way Forward
A vote for ACT this election is the only sure vote for RMA reform. The Nats will deliver whatever their coalition partners will let them deliver or, in ACT’s case, force them to deliver. That’s why we need your help to win in September.
ends
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