The election demonstrated deep divisions. Will the next three years make them worse or help heal the rift? And where will the pressure points be?
Read MoreResource Management Act
The shape of the new government - who gets what
A glimpse behind the door of supply and confidence negotiations reveals the dominant political fact this term - Key is King
Read MoreThe Environment Court, and the one percent
The court with “the potential to affect New Zealanders’ day-to-day quality of life more than any other court in the judicial system” is on the ropes. The RMLA speaks out
Read MoreNew Zealand story: an Appeal to our better nature
Government gets bolder. Meanwhile, Forest & Bird Ambassador Sir Alan Mark launches a public appeal for a Wise Government Response to five crises confronting New Zealand
Read MoreThe Mighty River Battle is on again
The Government can sell 49 percent of its shares in Might River Power – but it’s got another battle to fight before it can guarantee the river flows that spin the turbines and generate value for its power generator share buyers, consumers, and taxpayers.
Read MoreRMA at the heart of our nature
Even more significant than the government's former ideas about mining our national parks, a long-awaited government advisory group report would spell disaster for the Resource Management Act if it were implemented
Read MoreMine | No mine: the fight for Denniston
The fight over the different kinds of wealth on the “impoverished” Denniston plateau is about more than just Denniston. Chances are, it could finish in the Supreme Court
Read MoreThe RMA road map: infrastructure crossroads
To help the government’s goal of “building infrastructure for growth”, the foundations of the Resource Management Act are being quietly reviewed, without a scrap of evidence that infrastructure is being impeded by the current law
Read MoreBrownlee’s bucket list
Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee, and his colleagues, have work to do, according to an offshore petroleum environmental assessment, showing big gaps and serious risks in our regulatory practice
Read MoreFighting dirty, dairy’s udderhand tactics
In the latest skirmish, the Mackenzie cubicle dairy applicants — or, as they prefer to say, ‘covered farms’ — have turned an apparent setback into a tactical mini-triumph
Read MorePower’s hidden costs: what Meridian wouldn’t tell us
Meridian is sticking to the letter of resource management law. It risks big power generation decisions being made, at big environmental cost, without full cost-benefit analysis
Read MoreConservation land mining and the green genie
Mr Brownlee may have dug a big hole for the mining industry, by eyeing up Schedule 4. Conservationists' price: a better Schedule, and a higher test for mining access rights
Read MoreCanterbury Water Woes
Removing elected officials, replacing tried and true legal tests and processes with a non statutory, unreviewable Strategy, and changing rights of appeal half way through statutory processes - these features and more are the result of the new Act that signals a new era for the management of water in Canterbury.
Read MoreCubicle dairy farming: were the secret consents unlawful?
Don’t fire up the bulldozers in the McKenzie Basin just yet. Land use consents for cubicle dairy farms granted by the Waitaki District Council may need to be reheard
Read MoreCubicle dairy farming: Environment Canterbury’s stink performance
An industrial-grade whiff of incompetence disqualifies Environment Canterbury from making a nationally significant resource management decision on cubicle dairy farming
Read MoreNational Policy Statement: wholly happy cows
We need a national debate on cubicle dairy farming, and dairy farming in general – is it the backbone of this country, or the boil on our behind? And what's it worth to us?
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