Preface - Ministry for the Environment
This report presents the findings of an independent survey commissioned by the Ministry for the Environment to examine the impact of participation in the Making Good Decisions Programme (MGDP) on the performance of hearings commissioners and hearings committees. As indicated, the original report was prepared by Boulder Planning (Otago) Ltd. The consultants surveyed resource management practitioners on their perceptions of hearings commissioners and hearings committees performance across key competency areas promoted by the MGDP.
This report is an abridged version of the original report. The names of those practitioners that were surveyed have been removed from this version of the report, to protect their anonymity. References to specific hearings commissioners and hearings committees have also been removed from the report.
The purpose of the survey was to ascertain the effect - if any - of participation in the MGDP on the subsequent performance of certificate holders. It was not intended to rank or otherwise rate the performance of individuals per se. Nevertheless, the Ministry believes that the report provides a very useful perspective on the effect of the MGDP to date.
To preserve the independence of the report's findings, no other changes have been made to its contents, other than those described above.
