This Act comes into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent.

The purpose of this Act is to require the allocation of water in the Waitaki catchment on a basis consistent with the purpose and principles of the principal Act and, to this end,—

• (a) to establish the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board; and

• (b) to require the Board to develop and approve a regional plan for water allocation that is—

  • (i) to have effect as if it were a regional plan developed and approved under the principal Act by the Canterbury Regional Council; and

  • (ii) to provide expressly for certain matters; and

• (c) to defer the hearing of certain applications for resource consents relating to the Waitaki catchment until the regional plan for the allocation of water is operative.

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

(2) Terms and expressions used but not defined in this Act have the same meaning as in the principal Act.

(1) This section establishes the Waitaki Catchment Water Allocation Board.

(2) The Board is a body corporate.

(3) The Board continues in existence until dissolved in accordance with section 11.

(1) The function of the Board is to develop and approve a regional plan in accordance with Part 3.

(2) The Board must complete its function within 12 months after—

• (a) the day on which all the members of the Board are appointed; or

• (b) if all the members of the Board are not appointed on the same day, the day by which 3 members are appointed.

(1) For the purpose of carrying out its function, the Board has—

• (a) full capacity to carry on or undertake any activity, do any act, or enter into any transaction; and

• (b) for the purposes of paragraph (a), full rights, powers, and privileges.

(2) Subsection (1) applies subject to this Act, any other enactment, and the general law.

(1) The Board comprises not fewer than 3 and not more than 7 members appointed by the Minister.

(2) In appointing members to the Board, the Minister must have regard to the need among the members of the Board for knowledge, skill, and experience in relation to—

• (a) the Resource Management Act 1991; and

• (b) matters likely to come before the Board about water allocation and river ecology; and

• (c) the Waitaki catchment; and

• (d) tikanga Maori (Ngai Tahu customary values and practice); and

• (e) in the case of the chairperson of the Board, judicial processes.

(3) The chairperson of the Board is the member appointed by the Minister to be the chairperson.

(4) The deputy chairperson of the Board is the member appointed by the Minister to be the deputy chairperson.

(5) A member may be removed from office at any time by the Minister, by notice in writing, for inability to perform the functions of office, legal incapacity, bankruptcy, neglect of duty, or misconduct proved to the satisfaction of the Minister.

(6) A member of the Board may resign by notice in writing to the Minister.

The Minister may, to assist the Board in carrying out its functions,—

• (a) arrange for work to be done for the Board:

• (b) supply any information to the Board.

The provisions set out in Schedule 1 apply in relation to the Board.

(1) The Board is dissolved on such date as may be specified by the Governor-General by Order in Council.

(2) An Order in Council may not be made under subsection (1) unless the Board has completed its function and all appeals relating to the function have been decided.

The Official Information Act 1982 is amended by inserting in Schedule 1, in its appropriate alphabetical order, the following item:

In carrying out its function under section 6, the Board must include objectives, policies, and methods (including rules, if appropriate) in the regional plan, to provide for—

• (a) water that is or may be taken from, or used in, the Waitaki catchment in accordance with section 14(3)(b) and (e) of the principal Act; and

• (b) water to sustain the intrinsic values and amenity values that the Board identifies and determines should be sustained in the Waitaki River and associated beds, banks, margins, tributaries, islands, lakes, wetlands, and aquifers; and

• (c) the allocation of water to activities, as appropriate; and

• (d) the management of allocated water, including methods that provide for dealing with periods of time or seasons when the level or flow of water is low.

(1) The regional plan developed and approved under this Part, when it is operative in accordance with section 27,—

• (a) is the Canterbury regional plan for the allocation of water in that part of the Waitaki catchment that is within the Canterbury region; and

• (b) may be reviewed and changed by the Canterbury Regional Council in accordance with the provisions of the principal Act, but not sooner than 2 years from the date when the regional plan referred to in this subsection becomes operative.

(2) All the provisions of the principal Act that apply to regional plans apply to the regional plan referred to in subsection (1) from the date on which it becomes operative.

(3) Subsection (2) applies subject to the provisions of this Act.

When the regional plan developed and approved under this Part is operative in accordance with section 27, the Canterbury Regional Council may prepare or change any other regional plan, including a regional plan relating to water in the Waitaki catchment,—

• (a) in a manner that is consistent with the regional plan developed and approved under this Part; and

• (b) provided the plan does not deal with the allocation of water in the Waitaki catchment.

(1) The Board may change the Otago Regional Water Plan as it relates to the Waitaki catchment as necessary to ensure that the Otago Regional Water Plan gives effect to the regional plan developed and approved under this Part.

(2) A change made to the Otago Regional Water Plan under subsection (1) must be included in the regional plan developed and approved under this Part.

(3) The Otago Regional Water Plan may be reviewed and changed by the Otago Regional Council in accordance with the provisions of the principal Act.

(1) In this Part, application means an application for a resource consent or a notice of requirement for a designation specified in Schedule 2.

(2) The Governor-General may, by Order in Council, amend Schedule 2 to add or omit—

• (a) any application for a water permit, and any associated land use consent or discharge permit, for any activity in the Waitaki catchment:

• (b) any land use consent or discharge permit associated with an application for a water permit referred to in Schedule 2:

• (c) any notice of requirement for a designation in the Waitaki catchment.

(1) A local authority must not consider and decide an application unless the regional plan developed and approved under Part 3 is operative.

(2) Section 88A of the principal Act does not apply to an application.

If an application is subject to a direction by the Minister under section 140 of the principal Act, the direction is cancelled.

In carrying out its functions under this Part, a local authority—

• (a) must publicly notify an application (whether previously notified or not) if, had the application been made after the regional plan developed and approved under Part 3 becomes operative, the local authority—

  • (i) would have been required to notify the application; or

  • (ii) would, in the exercise of a discretion, have decided to notify the application; and

• (b) may consider any evidence presented to the Board; and

• (c) must consider all relevant submissions lodged with the local authority or the Minister whether before, on, or after the commencement of this Act.

(1) The amendments made to the principal Act by the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003 apply, to the extent relevant, to an application for a resource consent or a notice of requirement to which this Part applies.

(2) This section overrides section 112 of the Resource Management Amendment Act 2003.

The Resource Management (Energy and Climate Change) Amendment Act 2004 does not apply to an application for a resource consent or a notice of requirement to which this Part applies.

An appeal to the Environment Court under this Part must be heard and determined as if it had been granted a priority fixture by the Environment Court.

(1) A local authority must, within 15 working days after the date on which notice of appeal is lodged, send to the Registrar of the Environment Court—

• (a) two copies of the application, documents, written submissions, statements, reports, and other papers lodged with the local authority and relating to the decision appealed from; and

• (b) any exhibits in the custody of the local authority; and

• (c) two copies of the whole of the decision appealed from.

(2) Subsection (1) applies subject to any direction of the Environment Court.

(3) If there has been a hearing before the local authority, the local authority must also send to the Registrar 2 copies of the written record of the hearing and made for the purposes of or under the direction of the local authority as have been transcribed or such greater number of copies as is required by subsection (4).

(4) If the transcript referred to in subsection (3) is certified to be correct by the local authority, no further verification of its contents is required.

(5) Subsection (3) does not apply to any notes made personally by the person who heard the application.

(6) If the evidence given at the hearing was recorded but has not been transcribed, the Environment Court may order, subject to such conditions as it thinks fit, that a transcript of the whole of the evidence be made and sent to the Registrar.

(7) The local authority may, at any time, make application to the Court for an order that the reasonable cost of making any transcript in accordance with this section be paid by any of the parties to the appeal.

(8) If an order under this section requires a transcript to be made, the local authority must certify the correctness of the transcript and send a copy of it to the Registrar.

(1) Within 10 working days after the Registrar of the Environment Court receives the documents referred to section 37, a notice of a judicial conference must be sent to all parties to the appeal, and the judicial conference must be presided over by an Environment Judge sitting alone.

(2) The Environment Judge presiding at any conference under subsection (1) must, after giving the parties an opportunity to be heard, do the following things:

• (a) assess the grounds of appeal to ascertain whether an order for striking out an appeal under section 279(4) of the principal Act should be made:

• (b) assess any applications for leave to hear new evidence, and any applications to have any witness cross-examined:

• (c) issue a direction to fix the dates by which the respective parties must deliver to the Court and to the other parties statements of the evidence to be given on behalf of the respective parties.

(3) The Environment Judge presiding at any conference under subsection (1) may, after giving the parties an opportunity to be heard, do 1 or more of the things specified in section 267(3) and (4) of the principal Act.