Opinion. Jamie McFadden  - Government needs to suspend all classifications, not just SNAs.

The government’s announcement of its intention to suspend the Significant Natural Area (SNA) law is momentous for all New Zealand landowners.

This is the first time in the 33-year history of the Resource Management Act (RMA) that a government has acknowledged the SNA policy is bad law.

Hurunui district landowners were among the first in the country to be hit with the SNA law in 1994. They feel particularly vindicated after having fought this policy for the past 29 years. In 2016 the Hurunui District Council became the first in New Zealand to remove all mapped SNAs and are one of the few councils standing with their community against a proven unworkable regulation.

The SNA suspension is monumentous because it sets a precedent for the other controversial classifications – Landscapes, natural character, wetlands, heritage, and Sites and Areas of Significance to Maori (SASMs). All these classifications come from the same flawed law as SNAs – Section 6 of the RMA.

Groundswell receives more complaints about section 6 classifications than any other law. This law has no respect for people, property owners or their rights, brings disruption into people’s lives from increased bureaucratic interference and compliance, and detrimentally impacts property values. It also penalizes landowners that have done the most to look after natural and cultural values on their land and turns these values into a liability, rather than an asset.

When the RMA section 6 law was introduced in 1991 the people of New Zealand were assured it would only apply to the truly iconic, not the huge land grab it has become.

Take the recent draft Waitaki District Plan as an example. The council are proposing 75 % of the district, a whopping 540 million hectares of land captured under multiple section 6 regulatory classifications. Several thousand landowners impacted, many facing their entire property captured, others with multiple regulatory classifications. Waitaki residents have rallied and organized a petition at Petition.nz. Groundswell supports this initiative and urges all Waitaki residents to support those in their community impacted by this proposal by signing the petition.

The debacle in Waitaki is being replicated around the country both rural and urban - Timaru, West Coast, Lower Hutt, Far North, Wellington, and Gore. It is causing community upheaval and a huge waste of ratepayers’ money. Finally in 2024 we have an opportunity to fix an inherently bad law. It is urgent that the government move quickly to suspend all section 6 classifications, not just SNAs. And a clear message be sent to councils that the existing law will be changed.

Jamie McFadden

Groundswell environmental spokesperson