Perspectives in resource management: A role for government: 603 case study for the Centre of Resource Management

Abstract

In January, 1988, the Minister for the Environment, the Rt. Hon. Geoffrey Palmer, announced a comprehensive reform of the principal resource management laws, continuing the process of review begun with the Town and Country Planning Act, Water and Soil Legislation, and Minerals legislation. A wide range of statutes are covered by the review, which has a stated aim of developing a statute or set of statutes which is "integrated, workable, efficient, and fair.". The resource statute review is one of the most important events in the field of resource management in the last decade. We chose this topic because we felt that we could contribute to the process of formulating new rules for the management of natural resources in New Zealand. Rationale for the reform was the focus of the initial public discussion. In an address to the NZ Law Society (22 March 1988), Dr. Roger Blakeley discussed commonly perceived deficiencies of the present system. These included concern with the excessive cost, time delays, and overlaps between statutory procedures which allow avoidable mistakes to occur and enable interested parties to proclaim the procedures unfair. Another criticism made was that the present statutes "do not allow for comprehensive consideration of the impact of [development] proposals on the environment", with the result that the environment is compromised.* The review in effect called for more efficient decision making procedures coupled with the wise use of natural resources. In order to isolate a manageable part of the subject, our group began by constructing questions we felt were crucial to the review. One of the most touted guidelines for the review was that it should be 'zero-based'. It appeared that this implied that all government intervention must be justified. This lead us to the question; "what is the role for government in the management of natural resources?"