After 10 months of urging the council to pause work on its plan to protect the environment, last month Environment Minister Penny Simmonds and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said if the council stopped work on its plan it could take part in the national review they said was needed before the Otago council notified its plan.
But the council did not pause work.
And last week the government moved to stop any council from notifying freshwater plans before the national policy statement on freshwater management (NPSFM) was replaced.
The government amendment was designed to come into effect retrospectively, the day before last week’s scheduled regional council vote in Dunedin.
Opposition MPs and some councillors denounced the loss of local decision-making and one councillor quit in protest after 20 years at the council table.
Still, Mr Bishop told the Otago Daily Times, "yes", the offer for the council to participate in targeted engagement on the review and replacement of the NPSFM remained on the table.
"Along with Ministers McClay and Simmonds, I wrote to Otago Regional Council ... to reconfirm the government’s commitment to work collaboratively with the council on freshwater matters, including on the review and replacement of the NPSFM," he said.
Ms Simmonds said the government’s Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill passed its third reading in Parliament last week — "delivering on our commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to councils and consent applicants".
This "first" Amendment Bill was focused on targeted changes that could take effect quickly and give certainty to councils and consent applicants, while new legislation to replace the RMA was developed, she said.
Last week, the government "provided more certainty by pausing the ability" for regional councils to be able to notify plans until either the new NPSFM was developed, or the end of 2025, whichever came first, she said.
There was also an exemption pathway for targeted plan changes within the restriction period, she said.
Mr Bishop said the government intended to implement the new NPSFM by the middle of next year.
The alternate timeframe of December 31, 2025, was "to allow for any unforeseen delays".
"We are working at pace to give councils and farmers certainty, so the hold on freshwater plan notifications will end with whichever of those occurs first — the new NPSFM or December 31, 2025."
"Any applications by councils for an exemption to the plan notification restriction will be considered by the Minister for the Environment on a case-by-case basis," Mr Bishop said.
The Bill lists a series of reasons why councils might be considered for an exemption to the requirement to pause plan notification, including an issue often raised at the council not to delay its plan — "unintended consequences".
However, yesterday, council chief executive Richard Saunders said the council had not contacted the Ministry for the Environment for information about how to apply for an exemption.
