Penny Simmonds failed to show up to a meeting that she organised last week. PHOTO: ODT FILES
The minister's absence from the meeting last week drew mixed reviews from councillors yesterday, one councillor said it showed the council was not a top priority, while another said the minister was clearly busy in the House.
Cr Michael Laws said "without the minister present, it was a waste of time."
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds said "parliamentary obligations" prevented her from attending the meeting.
"However, the government remains committed to ongoing engagement with ORC councillors to ensure productive collaboration," she said.
Last year, the ORC and the minister were involved in a stand-off as notification of the council's contentious land and water plan neared.
Michael Laws
After months of division among councillors, when the majority appeared poised to push the plan through, Ms Simmonds intervened at the 11th hour and prevented the council from voting to notify its plan.
Despite the apparent rift between the ORC and the government, the council was offered the chance to play a role as a targeted stakeholder in developing the new NPSFM.
Last week's meeting was held to allow for that.
ORC chief executive Richard Saunders said the discussion focused on councillors' experience "navigating" the land and water plan process under the present NPSFM.
"Unfortunately, the Minister for the Environment could not attend as she was required in Parliament at the scheduled time.
"Councillors went ahead with the meeting with a number of staff from the Ministry for the Environment."
Cr Alexa Forbes said Ms Simmonds' absence showed Otago councillors were not a top priority.
She said the next steps for the council's plan and the direction of the new NPSFM remained unclear.
"Things are as murky as they were on the day we were prevented from notifying our plan.
"I'm not sure what the value of this meeting was," Cr Forbes said.
Chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson said the meeting, at the invitation of the minister, constituted recognition the council had more experience implementing the present NPSFM "than probably any other regional council in recent years".
"There was a strong emphasis on the need for greater certainty, not just for resource users but also for the environmental outcomes our communities rely on," she said.
There were some questions posed about issues councillors might have an opinion on, Cr Kate Wilson said.
Cr Wilson said she offered the view that matters such as freshwater, indigenous biodiversity, and climate change could be dealt with together under one national policy statement.
Cr Laws said it was difficult to gauge whether the ministry officials at the meeting were "involved in a meaningful gathering of information or an exercise in institutional PR".
"The only useful information gleaned was that the new freshwater policy will be gazetted in the latter half of the year."
Cr Gary Kelliher said he missed the meeting due to a family funeral on the day.
However, given the recent history between the ORC and the government, he was "hopeful of a fair hearing" at the meeting but understood "if the bridge was too burnt".
"I suspect that ORC staff will be pushing strongly behind the scenes with MfE staff for their paused plan, and I just hope the ministers involved maintain their strong stance to date that Otago should have an environment with an economy too."
