Monitoring The Resource Management Act

The Ministry for the Environment has today released its first ever Findings of the Annual Survey of Local Authorities. The information collected by the survey will provide useful indications of how local authorities conduct their business under the RMA.

This is the first effort to record in an objective sense the actual performance of councils, to provide some hard data on practice issues, said Hon Simon Upton.

To date much of the Ministrys time has been focused on bedding in the Act. Now after five and half years of operation, a more structured approach to monitoring is warranted.

This survey is only the start. Im confident it will evolve into something more detailed. In time, we will have comparative information which will reveal much about the varying practises and approaches of Councils to their resource management responsibilities.

Mr Upton said, our objective is to identify good practice and to give poor performers the incentive to emulate the others.

The key conclusion to be drawn from the first annual survey is that we need a great deal more information: its bald figures cover widely differing performance, while some councils have been unable to respond fully to the questions asked.

Future surveys need to become more specific if the process is to withstand scrutiny from resources users, NGOs, and a world where consumers expectations are continuing to rise, concluded Mr Upton.