RMA amendments offer extra work for lawyers

And from the snouts-in-the-trough-department, this just in:

Legislation amending the Resource Management Act (RMA) will be a goldmine for the legal profession, a lawyer specialising in the RMA has suggested. Warwick Goldsmith, who has specialised in RMA law for 15 years, said that as a lawyer he should be applauding the bill because of the amount of "extra work and income" it would generate.

"What is now proposed is far more complex, far more time consuming, far more expensive, far more intimidating, far more difficult to understand for ordinary people. The only people who will benefit from the proposed changes will be the private companies who process consent applications on behalf of councils... and the lawyers and other experts who are paid to advise consent applicants and submitters...," Mr Goldsmith said.

Blimey, Mr Goldsmith might almost qualify as an honest lawyer, and if he hadn't said the following he might have: "The essence of my submission [on the proposed RMA amendments] is that `if it is not broken, do not fix it'," Mr Goldsmith said. The RMA process at council and Environment Court level was not perfect but was getting better."

Sigh. The RMA is broken; irredeemably broken, and only a stake through its heart can fix it. Abandon it and bring back the common law protections for property rights. That's my submission.

But Mr Goldsmith's admission that legislation such as the RMA offers a meal ticket for people like him who can pretend they have a real job brings to mind my favourite policy from the Libertarianz: their Unemployment Policy. Apparently they say that under Libertarianz unemployment would increase dramatically ... [Click here and scroll down to read.]