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1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

The Minister for the Environment proposes to introduce four national environmental standards for the installation and operation of telecommunications facilities (referred to as the NES in this document).  This document presents an analysis of the NES, as required by section 32 of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA).

1.1.1 National environmental standards

The RMA enables the Minister for the Environment to prepare national environmental standards.  These standards have the force of regulation and are binding on local authorities.

An NES can:

  • prohibit an activity

  • allow an activity subject to compliance with plan rules

  • restrict the making of rules and granting of resource consents

  • require certification of compliance with the regulations

  • specify the effect of the regulations on existing rules, and require local authorities to review existing resource consents within particular timeframes.

National environmental standards can be established for addressing a range of matters associated with issues such as air quality or water quality.  They may also be established for managing the effects of specific activities on the environment (for example, electricity transmission or telecommunications).  Full details of matters that an NES can regulate are provided in Appendix 4.

The first NESs in New Zealand are the suite of air quality standards introduced in 2004.  The NES for Sources of Human Drinking-water, developed to reduce the risk of activities on land contaminating drinking water sources, came into effect on 20 June 2008.

1.1.2 Proposed National Environmental Standards for Telecommunications Facilities

Four national environmental standards are proposed for the installation and operation of telecommunications infrastructure that supplies services related to mobile and fixed telecommunications services.  The standards are for radio-frequency fields and telecommunications facilities such as street-side cabinets and the addition of small antennas to existing structures on road sides or verges.

In essence, the proposals are:

1. Radio-frequency fields: An activity (such as a mobile phone transmitter) that emits radio-frequency fields would be a permitted activity provided it complies with the existing New Zealand Standard (NZS2772.1:1999 Radio-frequency Fields Part 1: Maximum Exposure Levels 3 kHz–300 GHz).

2. Roadside cabinets: The installation of telecommunications equipment cabinets along roads or in the road reserve would be a permitted activity, subject to specified limitations on their size and location.

3. Noise: Noise generated by telecommunications equipment cabinets located alongside roads or in the road reserve would be a permitted activity, subject to specified noise limits.

4. Roadside masts and antennas: The installation of masts and antennas on existing structures alongside roads or in the road reserve would be a permitted activity, subject to specified limitations to height and size.

Full details of the standards as approved by Cabinet are provided in Appendix 2.

1.1.3 Background

In June 2005, the Ministry of Economic Development completed a stocktake and analysis of regional and district plans and policy statements prepared under the RMA.  The aim of the study was to determine the extent to which existing planning documents consider the national benefits of network infrastructure.  The study found that such benefits are not always provided for at a district or regional level, leading to inconsistencies and uncertainties for telecommunications companies seeking to install equipment to deliver new or improved services.  The analysis also found that NESs have the potential to improve planning consistency.

The following month, the Government approved an industry-led approach to scoping NESs for telecommunications facilities.  A Telecommunications Industry Reference Group was convened, with representatives from Telecom, Vodafone and TelstraClear, Local Government New Zealand, the Ministry for the Environment, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Economic Development.  Cabinet chose to involve industry groups directly in the initial scoping process as it considered that industry was best placed to identify the main issues.

A range of possible policy options were considered by the reference group to address the inconsistencies in district plans.  The options included doing nothing, legislative change, non-statutory methods, national policy statements (NPS) and NESs.  After due consideration, the Industry Reference Group considered that NESs would be the most appropriate RMA-based mechanism to address the problems being faced.  This was because NESs would be able to achieve national consistency and a greater level of certainty for both local government and the telecommunications industry.

The proposals were submitted to the Ministry for the Environment, who then led the process for developing the NES for Telecommunications Facilities.  The proposals developed by the industry reference group were incorporated into a discussion document that contained the groups suggested standards as well as the Ministry for the Environment’s perspective on the industry proposals.

In June 2007, the Ministry for the Environment notified the proposed standards.  Details of the original proposals were described in the discussion document Proposed National Environmental Standards for Telecommunications Facilities (Ministry for the Environment 2007a).

Public consultation ran for eight weeks from 16 June to 10 August 2007 and provided the opportunity for anyone to engage directly with the Ministry for the Environment on the proposals contained in the discussion document.

At the beginning of the consultation period, public notices were placed in 16 major daily newspapers throughout the country and a media release was sent to media agencies, television stations, radio stations and newspapers.  Additionally, copies of the discussion document were sent to government departments, every regional council and territorial authority, and to community organisations that had previously expressed concern over telecommunications facilities.  This was followed by a series of five public workshops around the country to further inform people of the proposals.

A total of 82 submissions were received on the NES.  An overview of these submissions is contained in the report Proposed National Environmental Standard for Telecommunications Facilities: Report on Submissions (Ministry for the Environment, 2007b).

The submissions were analysed and used to inform the development of the final policies that were confirmed by Cabinet in February 2008.  The policies are presented and evaluated in this document.  Parliamentary counsel will draft the actual regulations to reflect the policy positions agreed by Cabinet.

1.2 The section 32 evaluation and report

Section 32 of the RMA requires the Minister for the Environment to evaluate the objectives and policies of any proposed NES, and to prepare a report summarising the evaluation.  The requirements contained within section 32 of the RMA are:

(3) An evaluation must examine:

  1. the extent to which each objective is the most appropriate way to achieve the purpose of this Act; and
  2. whether, having regard to their efficiency and effectiveness, the policies, rules, or other methods are the most appropriate for achieving the objectives.

    [...]

(4) For the purposes of this examination, an evaluation must take into account:

  1. the benefits and costs of policies, rules, or other methods; and
  2. the risk of acting or not acting if there is uncertain or insufficient information about the subject matter of the policies, rules, or other methods.

There are two main aspects to the test of appropriateness:

  • weighing up alternative objectives to determine which one will provide environmental outcomes that will best meet the purpose of the Act

  • being satisfied that the objective chosen can best be achieved through the Act, rather than through some other mechanism.

Getting a measure of effectiveness involves assessing how well something might work.

Determining the relative efficiency of various alternatives is more difficult, and involves an examination of costs and benefits.  A measure of efficiency is the extent to which the proposed method achieves the purpose of the Act, compared to the magnitude of what is foregone as a result of using this method.  Assessing this involves calculating and comparing the net environmental benefits against the net costs (environmental, social and economic).  The more the benefits exceed the costs, the more efficient the option is (Ministry for the Environment, 2000).

A detailed cost-benefit analysis comparing the NES to continuing with the status quo was completed as background to this report.  The detailed analysis has been used to inform the broader analysis contained in the present document.

 

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