Thursday, April 21, 2005

RMA is permissive? Yeah, right.

"Property developers could face more hurdles in getting large new projects approved after a Supreme Court decision this week," says Resource Management Act (RMA) specialist Richard Brabant this morning.

Like they need more hurdles, right? And who pays when every new hurdle adds costs? You can answer that one yourself, can't you.

According to the RMA's cheerleaders, the RMA is en example of "permissive legislation." That's what ACT's Ken Shirley said at the time. Further, the RMA does not allow anti-competitive behaviour said the cheerleaders.

Well, tell that to Josephine Grierson and the tenants and customers at the Fox outlet shopping centre in Northcote; it is the Resource Consent for this project that the Supreme Court has turned down. The Resource Consent was in the Supreme Court because shopping mall giant Westfield objected to another shopping centre down the road from their own.

The RMA is permissive. Really?
And it prohibits anti-competitive behaviour. Yeah, right.