Cartoon courtesy of Not PC, who has been railing against things like the Resource Management Act since he started his blog twenty years ago.
But the other day I was informed of something that threatens to screw me over more effectively than the RMA. A little piece of devilry that the Labour Party passed into law in 2022, the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL), The intention of the law is, as usual, supposedly done with the best of intentions, to stop good farmland from being carved up into lifestyle blocks that together can be sold for more than the farm is worth. Of course history makes me a little suspicious of the good faith of urbanites towards rural folk, given both history and assholes like this.
That NPS-HPL link is to the changes made to it this year by National, in order to get more wind farms built for one thing, which reminds me of this Not PC quote about the RMA, written in the NZ Herald 21 years ago:
The solution is simple: Don’t tinker with the procedures for acquiring a Resource Consent. Don’t tinker with the Environment Court. Don’t ‘recraft’ the RMA. Don’t ‘streamline it, don’t ‘fix’ or ‘reform’ it.
Instead, drive a stake through its heart. The RMA review team must reinstate the common law protections of property and environment — and then get the hell out of the way.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
No wonder DPF’s trumpeting the other day – Good principles for RMA reform – collected all of eight comments, when his other posts get tens and hundreds.
The next problem is that at the heart of the document are the definitions they start with:
- Part 2, Clause 2.1.
Objective: Highly productive land is protected for use in land-based primary production, both now and for future generations. - Part 1: Clause 1.3(1).
Land-based primary production means production, from agricultural, pastoral, horticultural, or forestry activities, that is reliant on the soil resource of the land
I only heard of this law the other day as I worked towards cutting two lifestyle blocks out of a farm as I try to plan for a future where the Labour-Green-Te-Pati-Maori government of 2026😱, 2029😬, 2030🤬 kills off the entire operation via Net Zero taxes or some similar insanity.
Apparently it’s people like me that the legislation was designed to stop, because history has demonstrated that the State is in an excellent position to evaluate the best uses to which land is put, such as “land-based primary production”, especially over the long-term.
Aside from my personal circumstances and annoyance, how does all this focus on protecting “highly productive land” for the purpose of “long-term values for land-based primary production” fit in with all the productive dry stock farms in the Wairarapa and elsewhere being bought and planted in frigging pine trees for carbon credit farming?
Trees are the current feel-good factor, but actually, retiring land to plant is only made economically possible by efficiency gains on the remainder. Conversely, whole farms changed to pine forests are wiping out food production entirely.
…
I am forced to watch sustainable food production (my life’s work) destroyed even though it is expected that 1.4 billion people will be protein-deficient by 2050. I lie awake in the early hours, composing yet another submission to be filed and ignored by group of professional listeners in Wellington (the seat of our government). The road that used to be quiet at 4am roars with logging trucks carrying logs from trees planted in the 90s during the last wave of land-use change.
Fun fact: I’ll have to pay an “agricultural economist” about $5-6000 to provide the assessment under the NPS-HPL, which may result in me reducing the size of the lifestyle blocks anyway or perhaps not having any at all.
I can now add this to the tens of thousands of dollars I’ll have to fork out to avoid getting screwed on our district water scheme. I recall Mr Luxon referring to this impact on rural water schemes as “disproportionate bureaucracy”
When he was in Opposition.
Why it’s like nothing has changed.
No Minister 
if memory serves that legislation was brought in to ‘protect’ the ‘valuable’ Bombay/Pukekohe soils ideal for market gardening.
Isn’t it ironic the protection needed was from a rapacious Auckland City council gouging landowners for rates as the value of their land for subdivision increased. The legislation increased costs whilst not providing the protection they wanted.
Sounds about right. Now it’s screwing up things all over the nation.
Way back in 2014, Kiwiblog discussed artificial milk:
Hasn’t gone anywhere, as I expected. Still, I’ve been expecting the breakthrough sooner or later. I’ve always imagined my herd being replaced by a large set of tanks into which biomass was fed and milk extracted. Science fiction stuff but ….
So what then for “highly productive land” via “primary production” since dairy will be dead?
Well, maybe I’ll grow crops? Maybe a robotic hydroponic farm (tons of water), maybe, maybe….
Whatever the choice I’m quite sure I’ll know about how to make the land “productive” than some bureaucrat in Wellington or closer to home.
Unfortunately, RMA reform is only ever going to come from the Labour Party, if it ever comes at all. And I’ll wager that it won’t, because MMP will ensure that Labour is beholden to TPM or the Greens or both.
National have zero interest in reforming the RMA, because their voters are property owners who stand to lose from the inevitable collapse in housing prices that genuine reform would entail. And sadly, that’s David Seymour’s problem as well, because he represents the electorate with the most property owners.
New Zealand is absolutely fucked. Donald Trump should stop trying to take over Greenland, and set his sights on New Zealand. It would be a mercy to us all.