Source: Choose Clean Water – Tom Kay
Flooding in the top of the South Island, and the threat of more to come later this week, demonstrates the dangers of the Government pushing ahead with policy changes based on narrow ideological grounds and a ‘growth at any cost’ agenda, say freshwater campaigners.
Tom Kay, spokesperson for the campaign group Choose Clean Water, says the Coalition Government’s proposed resource management reforms, with an ideological focus on ‘the enjoyment of property rights’, will inevitably leave communities more vulnerable to the impacts of flooding.
“The Coalition Government has demonstrated across its resource management reform that they care more about the profits of commercial players than good governance for the health and stability of our communities. Their ‘growth at any cost’ agenda is not only thoughtless but downright dangerous.”
Kay, a strong advocate for the idea of Making Room for Rivers as a strategy to keep communities and infrastructure safe from flooding while restoring the health of our rivers, says while many communities, councils, and insurance companies are ready for action to avoid hazards and widen allowed floodplains, the Government must not put growth and development on par with community safety and environmental health if they want to meaningfully reduce the risk to communities.
“We’ve just seen yet another example of devastating flooding following back-to-back experiences in Otago in October, the West Coast in November, and Canterbury in May. The costs are incredibly serious, including people losing their lives.
“We know our rivers need more space to carry floodwater safely, especially with the more extreme weather we’re getting as the climate continues to warm. But the Government’s narrow focus on growth and private property rights through their resource management reform risks undermining progress towards this.”
Kay says international evidence and case studies show the best option for keeping communities and infrastructure safe from flooding is to avoid development in high-risk locations, and to incentivise and fund planned relocation from places already at high risk. This approach also provides the best opportunity for restoration of rivers and their floodplains, whilst increasing community wellbeing, amenity values, and resilience.
However, he says the Government’s focus on growth and property rights is inconsistent with this.
“Documents continue to highlight the Coalition Government’s obsession with growth, and the misplaced idea that somehow we can continue to grow anywhere, with few restrictions, and still somehow mitigate the consequences. We can’t.
“While we support the introduction of a National Policy Statement for Natural Hazards, for some reason it is less-developed now than it was last year, and drafted provisions that would have prioritised using nature-based solutions to reduce flood risk—such as making room for rivers, and to direct councils to avoid development in high risk locations, are gone.”
“The proposed provisions direct councils to “consider” risk and act “proportionately”, leaving plenty of room for vested commercial interests to push councils into continuing to allow development, including homes, in high-risk locations.
“Not to mention that the proposal doesn’t apply to the development of infrastructure, which is one of the main and most expensive assets hit during flooding; or to aquaculture, agricultural, pastoral, horticultural, mining, quarrying, or forestry activities and the land and buildings they use.”
Kay says proposed changes to weaken the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management will also undermine the need to keep people out of harm’s way, and to maintain sufficient river health and width to safely carry floodwaters.
“We have a requirement to prioritise the health of water bodies and communities in the management of our freshwater under the idea of Te Mana o te Wai. Flood managers have supported this idea as a way to help communities reconsider how they live with rivers, including their associated risks and hazards, and to make changes that increase flood resilience and river health together.
“But the Coalition Government wants to get rid of this prioritisation.”
“We also have no idea what the Government wants to do with an existing provision in the policy that prevents the ‘loss of river extent’, and thereby maintains wider flood corridors, for example; or whether they want to remove a provision that requires water to be managed as part of an ‘integrated response to climate change’.”
“Our rivers and wider catchments need to be healthy and resilient if our communities are going to be safe from the worst harms of flooding. This Government needs to understand that private property rights and growth-at-all-costs won’t enable that. It will cost us all in the long-run.”
The Government’s consultation on freshwater and natural hazard policies, as well as related policies, is open for submissions until 27 July.
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Following Cyclone Gabrielle, Tom Kay toured the country promoting the idea of Making Room for Rivers in his previous role as Freshwater Advocate for Forest & Bird. He has spoken to over 60 groups and was met with understanding and support from communities, councils, and insurance companies across New Zealand. Tom presented to Tasman District Councillors in May 2023.