Protecting the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area
For my sins I spent last Summer reading the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill.
I was concerned about the implications these Bills would have for the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area.
Reading the bills raised several major concerns. Three matters in particular were especially worrying.
The bills did not amend references in the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area Act to the Resource Management Act - Although the Planning Bill contains a schedule making consequential amendments to various pieces of legislation this does not include the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Act. I presume this is through oversight. Schedule 11 contains the consequential amendments. They refer to the Resource Management Act, the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act, the Conservation Act, the Crown Minerals Act and a number of other Public Acts. The Heritage Area Act is a local act. Not remapping the provisions could potentially wreck the protections that the Heritage Area Act was trying to achieve.
The removal of a "hard" urban-rural boundary - Minister Chris Bishop has indicated that the ability to have a "hard" rural urban boundary requirement will be removed. This would allow for urban creep and was one of the matters that the Heritage Area Act addressed. The idea behind the Heritage Area Act was to create a "hard" boundary through set subdivision limitations with the further requirement that changes that affected the protective nature of this provision would be difficult if not impossible to achieve. I could not discover this particular power in either Bill and I anticipated that the Minister will seek to achieve this by way of the issuing of National Instruments. The Minister's powers are greatly enhanced in the new bills.
Compensation for Regulatory Relief - The bill proposes that landowners be compensated if their rights are affected by the imposition of certain planning restrictions. The phrase used is "regulatory relief". Relevant planning restrictions include adding controls to protect outstanding natural landscapes and features or areas of high natural character within the coastal environment. This would include most of the Heritage area. Part 4 of Schedule 3 of the Planning Act sets out the requirements for regulatory relief. The bill arguably "grandfathers" in existing provisions although the Environmental Defence Society has expressed a contrary view and expressed concern that the effect may be retrospective in effect. Section 64 of Schedule 4 requires Council to consider "the impact of the proposed rule on the reasonable use of land if the rule is substantially different in the operative plan". This may not have an immediate effect but it will have a chilling effect on imposition of further controls, even if they are necessary, as there may be a monetary consequence.
These concerns were raised with Council Staff preparing Council's submission and I am pleased that the Council submission mirrored our submission specifically in relation to the Heritage Area Act and also the provision of regulatory relief.
After discussing the matter with Sir Bob Harvey, former mayor of Waitākere Eco City, I thought it important to run a publicity campaign to highlight the issue and to get locals to respond. My strong impression is that westies support and appreciate living in a Heritage Area and want to make sure that the area is protected.
With the assistance of Te Kawerau a Maki a public meeting was organised for the Waitākere Council Chambers. The meeting was well attended and about 140 people were present. Tickets, which were free, were fully booked and there was a waiting list.
The meeting included some of the people most prominent in the original campaign to create the heritage area.
Along with Sir Bob speakers included Gary Taylor, Lynne Pillay who shadowed the bill through Parliament, and Edward Ashby.
I had the ability to acknowledge the contributions of a number of people to the creation of the Heritage Area including Jonathan Hunt, whose 1974 to create the Heritage Area was stalled for four decades, David Cunliffe who made meaningful protection a cause celebre, John Edgar who achieved more for protection of the Ranges than anyone else, Sandra Coney and Paul Walbran who as ARC Councillors backed the project fully, and Dr Graeme Campbell whose work behind the scenes was invaluable.
I also referred to Dr Morgan Williams whose description of the problem as being the Ranges facing "death by a thousand cuts" resonated strongly and helped to formulate the response.
The meeting created a strong response within the community and there were many offers by dedicated westies to help with a campaign.
Three priorities were identified:
1. An online petition urging the Government to safeguard the protections of the Heritage Area Act by amending the Natural Environment Bill and the Planning Bill was started.
2. Westies were urged to write to the Prime Minister, the Minister in charge of the reforms, members of the Select Committee considering the Bill and local MPs.
3. Lobbying of MPs and Ministers.
Petition
The petition received considerable social media attention and support and as at today's date there are 8,000 signatories.
It also received some media attention and this RNZ article provided a useful background.
I was even interviewed by Wallace Chapman on The Panel to outline my concerns.
We had a formal handover of the petition at Arataki Visitor's Centre recently. The event was made especially poignant by the coincidental presence of a large number of Te Kawerau a Maki whanau who were able to witness the handover.
The petition is making its way through Parliamentary processes. There are some complications which will hopefully be resolved soon.
Email Communications with MPs
I have received some feedback that MP's email inboxes have been flooded with requests for protection to be continued. Particularly pleasing is that the tone of the requests have been civil. There is far too much incivility in modern politics.
Lobbying of MPs and Ministers
I have been talking to and lobbying Members of Parliament and have had extensive engagement with locally based MPs Vanushi Walters, Steve Abel and Oriini Kaipara. I also met with Chris Penk who kindly made available some of his valuable time and we had a useful discussion about the issue.
I am aware that Gary Taylor and EDS have had a number of discussions with decision makers. The Government is aware of the problem.
In response to the emails he has received Minister Chris Bishop has responded as follows:
“When introducing the Bill, the Government was clear that amendments will be required to other legislation to ensure statutory protections or interactions continue to exist under the new planning system. The Waitakere Ranges Heritage Protection Act 2008 and the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 are two examples of this. These changes are technical in nature and are focused on ensuring those Acts have equivalent effect in the new resource management framework.
The Environment Committee is currently considering the Bills and the submissions received on them. Officials are providing advice to the Committee on consequential amendments, which will be considered as part of the select committee process. The Committee is due to report the Bills back to the House by 26 June 2026, at which point any amendments will be incorporated into the Bills and published. “
The matter remains of the deepest concern. Even if the references to the RMA in the Heritage Area Act are remapped to the new Acts there are questions, for instance, about how the strong prohibition of subdivision in the Heritage Area is affected by the presumption in the new legislation that subdivision should be permitted. And the question of how the regulatory relief proposal, if enacted, would apply to the Heritage Area and if a future plan review would trigger a swathe of claims for compensation, remains unclear.
Time will tell. Im the meantime I intend to keep the pressure on to make sure that the Waitākere Ranges Heritage Area remains protected and does not suffer death by a thousand cuts.
