Foreword
At the start of the 2003/04 financial year the Ministry was in the final stages of a major 'transformation' of our structure and ways of working, and of determining what we could and could not do. This new direction was founded on the expectations of our Ministers and stakeholders, as well as on our own assessment of the central role we should play as the Government's principal adviser on the environment.
Now we set out on the 2004/05 year with a strong sense of achievement about what has been done or put in place through our new way of working. To reach this point, we have actively recruited new people with the skills we need and the ability to work with major stakeholder groups. We have focused on developing strong relationships and partnerships with other Government agencies and other key sectors.
Some significant problems have been fixed, or are well on the way to that. The clean-up of New Zealand's worst contaminated site at Mapua is happening. The long-standing problems with disposal of aluminium dross in Bluff have been sorted out through a cooperative approach by the interested parties. The major improvements in the Environment Court, which we have put huge effort into promoting, mean that the backlog for hearings has been cut dramatically and most new cases will be scheduled within six months. The first national environmental standards under the Resource Management Act will soon bring greater certainty for plan making and resource consent processes. The list goes on, and will be set out in our annual report to Parliament.
Even more exciting for our partnership approach to environmental management is the establishment of a Chief Executive's Forum on the Environment that brings together the key players from central and regional government. We hope that this will provide strong environmental leadership in areas of mutual interest.
Over the past 18 months there has been a focus on establishing and fixing in our work programme. This has been undertaken at a time when new work has continued to flow in at high speed. While there will always be new work knocking on the door, we need to continue to increasingly give emphasis to activities carried out in partnership with others and which promote sustainability.
We are confident that we now have the capacity to show leadership on the environment and to achieve results through working collaboratively with the other key players in environmental management. We look forward to the coming year.
Barry Carbon
Chief Executive
