The Supreme Court decision of Marlborough DC v Altimarloch Joint Venture Ltd acts as a timely reminder to councils of their statutory duty of care to provide accurate information on a Land Information Memorandum (LIM).
The Government made its Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) phase two reform intentions clear last Thursday with the release of the long-awaited discussion document entitled "Improving Our Resource Management System" (the Discussion Document) which can be viewed here.
The stimulus for these reforms has been widely discussed and generally focuses on the need to streamline and clarify RMA processes in order to achieve greater economic efficiency and growth.
On 5 December 2012, the Government introduced the Resource Management Reform Bill; an omnibus Bill with provisions to amend the following statutes:
The Bill is divided into three parts.
Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill 2012
At the beginning of September the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf (Environmental Effects) Bill passed into law, setting up a regime for environmental protection of the EEZ in relation to certain activities including petroleum and mineral exploration and extraction. The next step in the furtherance of the Government's Business Growth Agenda and Petroleum Action Plan to unlock the country's petroleum and minerals assets comes in the form of the Crown Minerals (Permitting and Crown Land) Bill 2012, which received its first reading last month. The Bill amends the Crown Minerals Act 1991 (CRA), and makes related amendments to other Acts.
Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated v Waitaki District Council
This case is interesting because it clarifies the principles applying to the issue of Certificates of Compliance (CoC) in accordance with section 139 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). It confirms that Councils must carefully consider what type of information will be needed in order to undertake an adequate assessment as to whether an "activity can be done lawfully in the particular location without a resource consent" before issuing a CoC. The determination will greatly depend on the wording of the particular District Plan provisions involved.
The question of ownership of river beds between riparian owners and the Crown turns on the issue of navigability. Historically, this was dealt with under section 14 of the Coal-mines Act Amendment Act 1903 (CAAA'03) which was substantially re-enacted in section 261 of the Coal Mines Act 1979 (CMA). The legislation holds that if a river was navigable then it vests in the Crown. In determining, contrary to earlier decisions, that the stretch of river in question was not navigable, the Supreme Court (SC) decision in Paki v Attorney-General is a small victory for Maori.
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