How bad is Labour’s RMA replacement?

I have blogged a couple of times on how Labour has managed the almost impossible and come up with a replacement for the RMA which is even worse than the RMA. And this is not just my view.

At a recent business meeting, I asked David Seymour what score would he give to Labour’s RMA replacement laws, if we generously scored the RMA a 3/10. This was after around 45 minutes of discussion on all the problems with the current law.

David responded immediately with a -1/10, yes minus one, and said that he never ever thought he would say this but if Labour passed their RMA replacement laws this year, then on Day 1 of a National/ACT Government, their first move should be to reinstate the RMA until a better replacement can be found (such as ACT’s policy)

Chris Bishop has pointed out:

The Government’s RMA reforms are so bad they are putting at risk the ability for New Zealand to meet its climate change ambitions, National’s RMA Reform and Urban Development spokesperson Chris Bishop says.

“Contact Energy yesterday told the Environment Committee that the RMA reforms were the ‘single biggest threat’ to new renewables and that without ‘urgent change’ New Zealand could ‘kiss goodbye’ decarbonisation of the energy sector.

And further:

Contact’s submission follows a negative submission by the Wind Energy Association two weeks ago, which said that new wind farms would be harder to consent under the reforms rather than easier, and the Electricity Sector Environment Group which said the proposed new laws were currently ‘unworkable’.

Labour’s RMA replacement laws would achieve the difficult twin feat of being terrible for the economy and terrible for the environment.