At the same time, the RMA cannot simply be abolished. This would create a legal vacuum for resolving specific public good issues, such as those relating to flood control, water use, pollution, unstable land or hazardous substances. Prior to the RMA, there were nearly 50 statutes of a specific nature. Legislation of a specific nature can address an identified problem with private arrangements. Sweeping broad-brush legislation may not. It took many years to design an RMA to replace more than 50 statutes. It would take many more years to unscramble that work. If the next Government is genuinely concerned with community wellbeing it should set up a process for directing top quality legal and public policy minds to this task. Partial remedies
Partial remedies must include freeing up the supply of land for subdivision and high-rise
residential development to reduce median dwelling values relative to median income. All partial remedies should seek to restore greater disciplines for resource use decisions along these dimensions: • ensuring cost-benefit assessments of regulatory provisions comply with Treasury guidelines; • expanding the scope for property owner compensation for takings or property use rights; and • narrowing the range of people who can object to the direction of restoring the former common law concept of an interested party test. Overseas Investment Act 2005 New Zealand’s resources are miniscule relative to global resources. Through two-way openness to
Figure 6: OECD Restrictiveness Index for member countries (2018) 0.250
0.200
0.150
0.100
0.000
Luxembourg Portugal Slovenia Czech Republic Netherlands Estonia Finland Lithuania Latvia Spain Germany Colombia Hungary Greece Denmark Belgium United Kingdom Ireland France Slovak Republic Italy Japan Chile Sweden Turkey Poland Switzerland Norway United States Austria Israel Korea Australia Canada Iceland Mexico New Zealand
0.050
Source: OECD, “FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index,” Website. Note: 1 = closed, 0 = fully open
THE NEW ZEALAND INITIATIVE 29
