Budget 2024: ‘Attack on nature’ as government cuts funding for environmental programs

The only new money in the budget allocated to environmental protection will be allocated to resource management reforms, in an area where relaxed nature protection rules currently apply.

The government has committed $92 million over four years to “implement the government’s resource management reforms, including fast-track consent legislation, amendments to the Resource Management Act (RMA) 1991, updates to national guidance and legislation to replace the RMA.”

The Accelerated Approvals Bill would give three ministers, none of whom would be the environment minister, the final word on giving the green light to infrastructure projects, even if resource consent is refused or held up in court.

The proposed freshwater changes have been criticized by environmental groups as a continuation of the “war on nature” because they would relax rules for farmers and instruct local governments to deprioritize the environment when issuing permits.

Overall, the cuts in the 2024 budget outweigh the gains.

Cutting jobs at the Ministry of the Environment will save $22 million by 2028, and by reducing funding for freshwater programs, the government will save more than $23 million over the same period.

Green Party environment spokesman Lan Pham said it was a “real hit” for both the projects it funds and the economy.

“It means fewer jobs for people, it means less contact with nature.”

A further $9 million was cut from evidence and data funding in the form of consultants, external agencies and specialists providing a range of services including environmental standards updates, monitoring, reporting, policy work and science provision.

Greenpeace was critical of the move, saying it would “make it more difficult to document the impact of government policies.”

Although conservation funds total nearly $32 million, no new spending is planned.

Greater savings will likely come from the decision to end funding for Jobs for Nature – a program set up by the previous government to create nature-based jobs to improve native biodiversity and employment prospects post-Covid-19.

It was scheduled to end in 2026, but by stopping the program now and returning funds that had not yet been allocated to any specific project, the government saved $55 million.

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The government is set to save another $17 million by choosing not to build the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary, almost a decade after former prime minister John Key first announced plans for the 620,000-square-kilometer project in 2015.

Another $6.5 million was saved by cutting funding for legal and regulatory services, including at the Department of Conservation, which Forest & Bird said would limit the department’s ability to advocate for wildlife through the legal system.

The manager of the forest and bird conservation group, Richard Capie, said the government was “effectively undermining the conservation budget to pay for its attack on nature”.

Pham said the budget showed the government had misunderstood its role and responsibility to protect the environment.

“When agencies so vital to protecting and restoring our natural environment are so underfunded that they simply cannot respond, they are essentially paralyzed,” she said.

“And that’s what this government wants, because it’s pushing through really environmentally damaging and actually very anti-democratic laws… that it doesn’t want anyone to be able to question.”