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its apex. However, I
cult to understand when
reasons given for a national planning framework, including the spatial
limitations of lower-level planning processes and the need to coordinate
them in the interests of advancing nationally important goals, would
depend on the active involvement of the state in planning. In addition, a
concern with relying exclusively on policy statements to set a lead is, as
Klein notes in discussing problems with implementing New Zealand
nd this conclusion dif
s
Resource Management Act, that the lack of statutory status or parlia-
mentary scrutiny provides governments with the opportunity to make
grand rhetorical statements but without exercising rigour in preparing
policy contents or providing speci
'
cguidanceastohowtheseshouldbe
put into practice.
88
Policy statements are also more easily cast aside than
legislationasanincominggovernment
s ideological perspective replaces
that of its predecessor. The better approach where there is a recognised
need to alter society
'
'
s course would be to provide a clear statement of
what it is that planning should aim to achieve and a set of legally
enshrined principles and rules that bind decision-makers to, and support
them in, advancing ecological objectives.
5.3.2 Analytical planning
An ecological planning process would complement policy-making by
exploring how the endpoints envisaged in policies might be realised in
ways that respect ecological principles of resource and land use. In view
of this, it is essential that the planning system is supported by a solid
informational foundation that would allow the sources of existing levels
of ecological stresses and the means of reducing them to be identi
ed and
employed in the formation of strategies for policy implementation.
There is a signi
cant crossover in this respect with spatial and environ-
mental planning theories which also stress the importance of a robust
evidence base for determining how sustainable development might be
promoted through the more rational territorial organisation of land
uses.
89
For example,
the Royal Commission on Environmental
Pollution argues that
'
high quality information
on the structure and
...
88
U. Klein,
Integrated Resource Management in New Zealand: A Juridical Analysis of
Policy, Plan and Rule Making under the RMA
'
'
(2001) 5 New Zealand Journal of
Environmental Law,36.
89
Nadin,
'
Emergence of Spatial Planning
'
, 57; The Royal Commission on Environmental
Pollution,
'
Environmental Planning
'
,pp.116
-
7, paras 8.65
-
8.69, p. 147, para 10.19,
p. 150, para 10.41.
