Rivers to suffer from Government’s amendment to s107 of RMA

The Coalition Government’s plan to amend s107 of the RMA threatens to undermine a fundamental baseline protection for freshwater ecosystems. The changes got one step closer last week with the Primary Production Select Committee's report on the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill.  

Section 107 places limits on councils’ power to permit water pollution.  

The Government first announced its intention to amend s107 in August, after a short campaign by industry lobbyists. The lobbying followed ELI’s success earlier in the year in the High Court in overturning Environment Canterbury’s decision to grant a discharge consent to Ashburton Lyndhurst Irrigation Ltd.

ELI’s senior researcher Anna Sintenie says “ELI’s view then, as now, was that such a knee-jerk change to s107 is unjustified and will make it harder to solve the actual problem: the pollution of our freshwater.” 

Following the Primary Production Select Committee's report last Monday, the changes will now be put to Parliament. This is despite never having been introduced for public scrutiny through the select committee process.

It is also despite the objections of the Select Committee’s Labour and Green Party members, and even the Chair’s own assurances to submitters that this matter was not for the Select Committee’s consideration.

ELI’s successful judicial review should have been a turning point that prevented waterways being degraded even further in Canterbury, but instead, the Government has caved in to the demands of the industry. The anti-democratic process followed by the Government means that there will be no opportunity for ELI, or any other member of the public to have their say on the changes which cut to the heart of Aotearoa’s freshwater protections.  

“Along with the other changes in this Bill, the Government is eroding protections for freshwater and exacerbating the freshwater crisis” says Ms Sintenie.

Independent public scrutiny of proposed laws is needed to counter the private interests which seek private benefit, who as this case displayed, are not concerned with protecting the taonga that is our environment and on which we all rely.