The four existing Commissioners on the panel looking after the ORC’s current Non-freshwater part of its proposed Otago Regional Policy Statement (pORPS), have also been appointed to the Freshwater Panel.
They are Ron Crosby (Chair), Rauru Kirikiri, Allan Cubitt, and Bianca Sullivan.
ORC’s General Manager Policy and Science, Anita Dawe, says “We’re pleased to be able to have the Commissioners appointed and to get the freshwater hearing underway soon”.
Submissions on the Freshwater part were open from September to November last year. A date is yet to be set and announced on the start of the Freshwater hearing but is expected to be in August or September 2023.
The Non-freshwater part hearing is nearing completion, with Natural Features and Landscapes and Land and Freshwater still to be covered.
Lake Mahinerangi
“Having the same Panel hearing the Freshwater parts is the best outcome for the RPS given we had to split the plan.
It means integrating the document back together should be more straightforward,” she says.
The pORPS 2021 (Proposed RPS 21) sets the direction for future management of Otago's natural and physical resources. The pORPS is the cornerstone document for the ORC’s forthcoming proposed Land and Water Regional Plan, which itself is required to be publicly notified by 30 June 2024.
Ms Dawe says it is expected the Freshwater hearings will be a much shorter duration than the Non-freshwater hearings – as there were 47 submitters to the Freshwater parts of the pORPS, and 23 further submitters, while the pORPS as a whole had 343 valid submissions.
Background to having non-freshwater and freshwater panels
In June 2021, ORC publicly notified its proposed regional policy statement. At that time, the Council had determined that the whole of the pORPS was a freshwater planning instrument.
In its Judgment (Otago Regional Council v Royal Forest and Bird Protection Society of New Zealand Incorporated [2022] NZHC 1777) dated 22 July 2022, the High Court declared that the Council’s determination that the whole of the PORPS is a freshwater planning instrument was incorrect.
The High Court instructed the Council to satisfy itself as to which parts of the proposed regional policy statement qualify as part of a freshwater planning instrument because they relate directly to the maintenance or enhancement of freshwater quality or quantity.
Since receiving the Judgment of the High Court, the ORC has applied the approach set out in the Judgment, and at its meeting on 15 September 2022 Council determined that the parts of the pORPS 2021 are those that directly relate to the maintenance or enhancement of the quality or quantity of freshwater as defined in section 80A (2)
of the Resource Management Act 1991 and therefore comprise a freshwater planning instrument.
