The helm has changed, the direction has changed, but the destination is the same! Hard port, and full steam ahead! We had Three Waters where the control of assets would be removed From Local Government. Now new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is doing the same thing, under a different name. This time it's called Resource Management Reform.

The ‘Natural and Built Environment Bill', which is in progress, will create more red tape. It's questionable – the ability for most ratepayers to have a say in the 15 new ‘regional planning committees'. The new plan looks surprisingly similar to the old plan.

But instead of taking council's water assets, they want to take control of council functions of planning, consenting, and your environment. Again a good percentage of the decisions will be made by people who on an individual basis no-one voted for. The plan is to create more government departments that don't accurately represent regional New Zealand. The main problem with the Regional Planning Committees is that they won't respond to what the public wants. It's another example of ‘get on board to improve the Titanic'.

Andrew Clow, Te Puna.