By 3 News online staff
Solely relying on the ACT Party to pass proposed changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) will be "unwise" and have no credibility with New Zealanders, United Future leader Peter Dunne says.
Environment Minister Nick Smith is expected this week to outline another attempt to reform the Act after United Future and the Maori Party pulled their support for changes, meaning it couldn't pass.
But after National increased its seats in the House at last year's election, with the support of sole ACT MP David Seymour it has the numbers to pass the reforms.
But Mr Dunne believes doing that would "send all the wrong signals".
"RMA changes are a real test of the Government's environmental protection credentials, and it is important for New Zealand's future that it not fail the test by taking the easy way out of relying on the ACT Party," he says.
"ACT's antipathy to the RMA is well-known, so what would emerge in such circumstances would be legislation that would severely reduce environmental protections and standards in favour of development."
Mr Dunne believes National should work with all parties to improve the legislation rather than "gutting its principles" to get ACT's support.
United Future and the Maori Party pulled their support after previous Environment Minister Amy Adams proposed putting the environmental and economic impacts into one section – something the parties believed would weaken the protection of the environment.
3 News
source: newshub archive
