The pace and scale of Government led reform in recent years has been incredible and unsettling. It has put all Councils under great pressure and left insufficient time and opportunity to engage with our communities or to explore better solutions.
3 Waters – I don’t believe that the current Government proposal meets the needs of our fast-growing city. I believe we can work smarter, need to find alternative solutions to get the best outcomes. The 4 mega entity model is not right for Hamilton. With good reason, our community has raised concerns around the transfer of city assets and the lack of local voice. I have and will continue to acknowledge that some change across NZ is needed to ensure that all New Zealanders have access to safe drinking water and that rivers, lakes and beaches are not polluted. This is not the case currently.
I will continue support the unified voice of Council in opposition to the current 3 Waters Bill and work with other councils and Government to get better outcomes.
Resource Management Act (and Urban Development) – The RMA is outdated and no longer fit for purpose. I understand the need for improvements to make processes easier for developers, builders, and others to do business with Council. We need them to build more houses and soon. The National Policy Statement already enabled intensified development in the right places (around transport hubs and service centres). The new medium density residential standards (enabled by law) came over the top of this and created changes that could fundamentally change the way our city looks and have negative impacts of existing homes and neighbourhoods. This law now enables 3 story apartments to be built in a scattered approach across our city. This is not consistent with our growth strategy and places a big infrastructure burden on our Council. I did not support this.
I will continue to look at ways of building a better city through the review of our District Plan and advocate to Government to support our existing strategic growth approach for better communities.
