More policies are stopped or slowed to help save $1bn for bread-and-butter spending – but RMA “reforms” escape the cull

Buzz from the Beehive

It was a big day for the stopping or slowing of a second tranche of government programmes, an exercise which  Beehive publicists are pitching as measures to allow the Government to focus more time, energy and resources on “the bread and butter issues” facing New Zealanders.

This affirms, of course, that since the 2020 general election, the bread- and-butter issues facing New Zealanders had been lowered (or forgotten?) in the Government’s priorities.

Hence the Government’s popularity had wilted, its poll support had shrunk and Jacinda Ardern – remember her ? – had bailed out as Prime Minister when it looked like the Nats and ACT were on course to win the election this year.

But her successor, Chris Hipkins, has not thrown all the rubbish overboard – or swept it under the carpet until after election day.  He is persisting with one programme which the state-subsidised mainstream media have not too well explained to the public – the legislation that will replace the Resource Management Act.

A strong hint that it deserves much more critical analysis can be found in an article by New Zealand Initiative chairman Roger Partridge headed Submissions expose horrors of David Parker’s RMS reform proposals.