Faster, cheaper … but better? The devil in the resource management reform detail

By Bill McKay, Senior Lecturer Architecture and Planning, Faculty of Engineering and Design, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

When the coalition government this week unveiled reforms to finally replace New Zealand’s Resource Management Act (RMA), many of us would have been glad to see the back of it.

I have encountered the frustrating complexities of this tired and unwieldy law over decades in architectural practice, as well as in various hearings at the Environment Court.

At one such hearing, a stack of paperwork beside the local MP stood taller…

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