Speech notes to opening of National Party Annual Conference

Ladies and Gentlemen, National Party members, welcome to the party’s Annual Conference for 2013.

This is the 77th annual conference of this great party, and I am proud to be here as party leader and as your Prime Minister.

Can I start by saying a big thank you to everybody here today.

You are what makes the National Party strong, and why it continues to be in such good heart.

It is because of you, and all your hard work, that National is in government today.

I want to particularly thank and acknowledge the party leadership, including President Peter Goodfellow, board members and regional chairs, for their on-going contribution.

I want to acknowledge my Cabinet colleague and Nelson MP Nick Smith, for helping to host this conference in his home city.

I also want to pay tribute to the hard work of each and every MP in our Caucus.

And, finally, I want to publicly thank my deputy, Bill English, for his tireless work in the Finance portfolio.

I think we can all agree that his Budget in May was among the best - if not the best - he has delivered so far. 

When Bill delivered his first Budget in 2009, we faced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and a New Zealand economy that had been in recession for more than a year. 

That Budget set out a plan to get New Zealand out of difficulty. 

The Budget in May this year was Bill’s 5th and, despite the difficulties we have faced since becoming government, the Budget demonstrated what can be achieved if we are determined, and stick to a plan.

The Budget showed us getting back to surplus in 2014/15 – two years earlier than Australia – keeping government debt under 30 per cent of GDP, and reducing that debt down to 20 per cent by 2020.

That is a remarkable turnaround in anyone’s books, and something Bill can be rightly proud of.

The Government is working hard for New Zealanders and their families.

We have four main priorities this term.

These are responsibly managing the Government’s finances, building a more productive and competitive economy, delivering better public services within tight financial constraints, and rebuilding Christchurch.

Part of building a more productive and competitive economy is ensuring that planning laws help us to sensibly manage our resources.

Having an effective and efficient resource management system is an important part of our Business Growth Agenda.

I can tell you that shortly, Environment Minister Amy Adams will announce the next phase of our reforms of the Resource Management Act.

New Zealand needs planning law that enables economic growth and jobs, as well as providing strong environmental outcomes.

The changes we are introducing are about striking that balance between our environmental responsibilities and our economic opportunities.

The latest reforms, which include changes to sections 6 and 7 of the law, are about providing great confidence for businesses to grow and create jobs, greater certainty for communities to plan for their area’s needs, and stronger environmental outcomes as New Zealand’s communities grow and change.

When National became the Government in 2008, we began a programme of reform to ensure that our planning law was about the sustainable management of our resources and timely decisions for New Zealanders and our job-creating businesses, rather than the endless bureaucratic delays people experienced under Labour.

The first stage of reform in 2009 involved 150 amendments to simplify and streamline the RMA, to reduce costs, uncertainties and delays.

This has improved outcomes for the environment, supported business investment and encouraged stronger economic growth.

These reforms reduced late consents from 31 per cent in 2008 to 5 per cent in 2011. That is a great achievement.

The 2009 reforms also created the Environmental Protection Authority, which enables the efficient processing of major urban and infrastructure projects that are crucially important to New Zealanders.

This process has led to the Waterview and Transmission Gully projects both being consented within nine months.

Previously these critical transport projects could be deadlocked for years.

The trade protection provisions introduced by the 2009 reforms have also helped tackle the so-called supermarket wars, where supermarket groups and other big retailers have spent years and years, and millions of dollars, fighting each other in the courts over their respective expansion plans.

Last December, Amy introduced a second resource management reform bill, which will deliver on our election promise of a six-month time limit for medium-sized projects, and allow easier direct referral for major regional projects to the Environment Court.

Today, I am pleased to tell you that the Government is ready to progress the third stage of RMA reform.

This will be the largest single set of reforms of the system since the law came into force in 1991.

A key part of these reforms will be addressing the heart of the housing affordability problem in New Zealand, by freeing up land supply and making it easier to build, extend, and renovate houses.

We want to see more houses built for families, and more jobs for builders and carpenters; not bureaucrats checking passports at the doors of open homes as Labour would have us do.

This latest move follows legislation introduced as part of the May Budget, which will see Housing Accords agreed with councils to free up land supply through special housing areas to address affordability.

Amy will be announcing the full package shortly, but I want to give you a snapshot of some of the changes we are making to address housing affordability and speed up and simplify consenting.

We will:

• halve the current time limit for processing straightforward applications, like adding a deck or veranda, from 20 working days to 10 working days;

• require councils to provide fixed-fee options for certain consents;

• introduce the ability for councils to waive the need for a resource consent where there is only a technical or insignificant variance from plan rules, for example where a retaining wall is only slightly over the permitted height;

• make it a council function to provide a minimum of 10-years of urban land supply to cope with projected population growth, and;

• make subdivisions non-notified unless they are clearly not the type of developments anticipated by the relevant plan and underlying zoning.

 
The Government’s comprehensive RMA reforms will deliver a system that meets the needs of our communities and our regions by enabling jobs and growth, while also providing for strong environmental protections in a timely and cost-effective way.

They are about breaking the cycle of delay after delay and delivering decisions; one way or the other. 

Our reforms are not about growth at any cost.

I have always said we have to balance our economic opportunities and our environmental responsibilities.  That is at the heart of our approach to planning law.

Our political opponents like to paint National as anti-environment.

That is nonsense.

We only have to look at Nick Smith’s sensible decision on the Milford Tunnel, or the extensive work we have done on managing water resources through such bodies as the Land and Water Forum, to see the balance and pragmatism that runs through our decision-making.

And that balance and pragmatism will continue to guide us in the reforms we make to improve planning law for the benefit of New Zealanders.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a Cabinet and Caucus team that is energized and making the changes necessary so the country is a better place for New Zealanders and their families to live and work in.

We have much to do, and we are getting on with it.

We couldn’t do so without the support of each and every one of you, and so I thank you all.

Enjoy the conference.