Misuse of land use planning

If you thought McDonald's was some kind of public health hazard, using processes under the Resource Management Act to try to block one from opening in Wanaka would be among the stupidest possible ways of dealing with it. 

The country already has food safety regulations. If you thought that (in fact delicious and fine) McDonald's food were actually toxic waste, food safety regs would address the problem across all existing 170+ outlets across the country. 

Objecting to a single restaurant would just be dumb. 

The land use planning system doesn't even work this way. The consent in Wanaka was to operate a restaurant type activity. 

If some other restaurant got a consent to open there, a McDonald's could buy the site and flip it to being a McDonald's without much land use consenting hassle unless they needed different transport links for a drive-through. 

If you wanted to handle this kind of thing through the land use planning system, every time a restaurant turned over it would have to go through a new consenting processes checking that the characteristics of the restaurant were substantially equivalent. 

It would be insane. 

So even if the National Public Health Service's submission against a McDonald's consent application in Wanaka hadn't been a steaming pile of anti-corporate buzzwords fresh out of a 1990s anti-globalisation rally (I mean, just look at the darned thing), it still would have been a terrible idea. 

The submission really was mad though. Here are a couple of snippets.

...there is no evidence supporting the fact that transnational (TNC) or multinational (MTC) create a prosperous, resilient, and equitable economy in the District"

...We are not aware that a holistic assessment of the value that this proposed new corporate business will add to the social, economic, and cultural wellbeing and physical health of the people and the community of Wānaka has been undertaken.

...To summarise, NPHS Te Waipounamu:

• strongly encourages further meaningful engagement with the community.
• reminds council of its Te Tiriti obligations to Kāi Tahu as mana whenua.
• is concerned about the impacts of MNC and TNC, such as McDonalds, on planetary health and the health of current and future generations.
• recommends a comprehensive HIA (including cultural impact assessment to analyse the cultural impact for Kāi Tahu). We would like to see such an assessment demonstrating that the outcomes for the individuals and the community of Wānaka would mostly be positive before granting consent for this proposed fast-food restaurant.

NPHS Te Waipounamu wishes to be heard with respect to this submission.

[Note that the changing acronyms MTC vs MNC are in the original.]

They didn't just put in a written insane submission. They also headed on out to the hearing to be heard about it.  

It reflects an NPHS that has lost sight of what it is meant to be doing and is off pursuing other objectives, in a time of tightly constrained resources. They were even intervening in the nutritional aspects of food carts in Invercargill. 

I'd covered it in my column in Thursday's New Zealand Herald, ungated here. 

A snippet:

The submission urges further measures that seem aimed at increasing McDonald’s legal costs – like demanding a comprehensive health impact assessment and a cultural impact assessment. The NPHS also weighs in on other matters about which it has no competence – like the visual amenity of the proposed restaurant.

And it provides a remarkable chart asserting that “GDP as a measure of economic growth” contributes to ill-health and health inequalities.

This is not a one-off. This is how the NPHS sees its role. This is its baked-in ideology.  

Mr Barry had previously inserted himself into discussions of whether Invercargill’s food trucks’ offerings have sufficient nutritional merit.

The letter from Health in All Policies Advisor Monica Theriault, which concludes the submission, notes, “We are eager to enhance how the concepts of health promotion can be effectively applied within the RMA framework.”

They want to do more of this.

The NPHS has revealed what it considers a priority in a time of restraint.

I draw a few conclusions.

First, the government’s coming reforms to the land use planning system must prevent the weaponisation of consenting processes.

Second, the Commerce Commission needs to pay a lot more attention to the anticompetitive effects of the land use planning system.

Finally, Minister Reti has not gone far enough with proposed budget cuts. He might consider razing the NPHS to the ground and starting over with an agency sharply focused on infectious disease. It is hard to see what else could fix it.

I also chatted with Sean Plunkett about it yesterday morning. 

Today, Minister Reti published a serve back to Health New Zealand, reminding them to focus on their core business. 

A snippet of that:

Minister of Health Dr Shane Reti says the National Public Health Service should concentrate its focus on prioritising serious public health issues facing New Zealanders.

“Earlier this week I was informed about an 8-page submission by the southern arm of the NPHS regarding a proposed fast food outlet in Wanaka,” Dr Reti says.

“I have raised my ongoing concerns about the content of submissions like these with the Chief Executive of Health New Zealand.

“Content within the submission, including observations about planetary health, landscape values, traffic and Te Tiriti do not match my over-arching view of what the NPHS should be spending its time on.

“Whooping cough, measles and raising immunisation rates are among the most pressing issues facing health today.

The serve was needed. And is welcome. 

I think Bob Edlin over at Point of Order missed the point here. 

A public health service focused far from main business, and using exceptionally stupid methods for achieving ends outside of their main business, has to be steered back, and hard. It will be hard for it to get anything else right without that direction, or without my alternative (and still preferred) solution of razing it and starting over. 

As David Farrar pointed out over at Kiwiblog:

Around half the public health staff (those who deal with infectious diseases) do amazing work, but around half seem to be taxpayer funded lobbyists who lobby the Government that employs them, or local governments.

I have an OIA in with Health NZ asking for the resourcing that went into that submission process, and for the decision-making process around it. And one in with the Ministry of Health just ruling out that they'd ever given Health NZ advice about this kind of thing. Will be interested to see what I hear back, eventually. 

And really, a better land use planning system ought to take this NPHS submission as a benchmark for "This is the kind of vexatious submission that should not only be dismissed summarily, but also result in a fine assessed against the submitter."