Submission on RMA reform - the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill

The Resource Management Act reform Bills will establish the system architecture for land and natural environment management with significant impacts for mokopuna, now and into the future. This is a critical window of opportunity. If children’s rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations are not built in from the start, mokopuna will be systematically disadvantaged for the foreseeable future.

The Bills must ensure the protections guaranteed in the Children’s Convention and Te Tiriti o Waitangi are embedded in Aotearoa New Zealand’s planning and environmental law. Specifically, the Bills should:

• explicitly include children’s rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations
• require Children’s Rights Impact Assessments
• make children’s best interests a primary consideration
• recognise mokopuna as key stakeholders with the right to participate, and
• protect children’s health.