PDF of this digest here

Activity One: Time for a Whole New Suit

In these tough times we all have to change our plans. I had hoped to sell a valuable section by now to fund the new house we want to build on this site. However, sponsorship of the Centre has dried up and demand for resource consents and similar advice is also well down. So we have little choice but to sell this house and office and rent until we sell the bare section and have the cash to build our new house on the other half of this 2.5 ha property.

 I first have to subdivide this lot into two, so the house will not be formally on the market for a month or so, but we thought we could let our friends and colleagues know in case anyone is interested in having a sneak preview. There is a photo at my facebook page under the album “where we are now’.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2017940&id=1011811548&l=5348943807

 If you want more photos or information let me know. It would be nice to know our future ‘neighbours-to-be’ in advance.

Funding.

The Centre has many more issues to address over the next several weeks. In particular we are seeking support for major ongoing investigation into the causes of New Zealand's low rate of productivity and a better way to finance our local government infrastructure.  The next Digests will focus on our Kyoto Protocol targets and the associated policies.

Remember, even a dollar helps.

RMA Prosecutions an Absolute Disgrace. (Grant McLachlan)

The recession means many councils see their stream of funds from planning applications and development levies drying up by the day. So many local bureaucrats are looking for a new source of funds and an excuse to punish the farmers.

Councils seem to operate outside our normal constitutional conventions. They write their own planning regulations, monitor them in the field, collect the evidence of breaches, bring the charges, provide the witnesses and are then able to pocket 90% of any fines and collect compensation for their costs. Imagine if any other part of the justice system worked this way.

 The Centre raised concerns about the use of RMA prosecutions as a revenue raising activity in an opinion piece published in Straight Furrow in September 2008 titled “The War on Dairy has Begun.” (Read the full essay here.)

 And now lawyer Grant McLachlan has become more than disturbed – and expresses his outrage in an essay “RMA Prosecutions an Absolute Disgrace” on Facebook.

Mr McLachlan opens with:

Can you think of any greater failure of a justice system than an innocent person pleading guilty to a vexatious charge for fear of losing their property to the government?

That is exactly what is happening in District Courts throughout the country on a weekly basis. The culprit is your regional or local council and their weapon of choice is the Resource Management Act.

I get a weekly digest of all the RMA court decisions. Without fail the majority of cases are guilty pleas by farmers.

I work in an industry where people live in fear of councils who make up the law as they go, selectively enforce it, charge fees like a wounded bull and drag people through the gauntlet of the court system until they relent.

This ‘hung, drawn and quartered’ strategy is what happens when you combine the ever changing and entangling regulation of the Resource Management Act with the overloaded and expensive summary proceedings of the District Court.

 Read the full essay here.