2019 Investigation by the Ministry for the Environment regarding water permits (Skelton Report)

On 19 May 2019, the Government launched an investigation into the Otago Regional Council, analyzing the council's ability to deal with incoming water permit replacement applications as a result of the century-old water permits being replaced with Resource Management Act (RMA) consents. This investigation took place after a council report was leaked to the media which detailed concerns about the council's lack of ability to deal with new water permit applications, which the Minister for the Environment David Parker summarized in a letter^[7] to the then Chairperson Marian Hobbs which stated that Professor Peter Skelton concluded that "the Otago Region does not have a fit for purpose planning framework in place" to deal with incoming water permits. Along with this conclusion, the Minister made a series of recommendations to the council including a fully developed freshwater management planning regime to assess water consent applications, to develop and initiate a "programme of work" which would fully review the RPS^[8] by November 2020 and a refurbished and original Land and Water Regional Plan (LWRP), and finally for the Otago Regional Council to develop a plan change to provide an appropriate "interim planning and consenting framework" which would manage freshwater until allocation limits are set up.

In the report, David Parker expressed disagreement with Professor Skelton's recommendation that he begins a process to change the date for expiry of specific deemed permits until 2025, commenting: "I am not in favour of changing the RMA to extend the date for expiry of the deemed permits..... I prefer that ORC takes steps to resolve the matter rather than taking up the time of Parliament." Later, the date for expiry of water permits and discharge permits was reached and on 1 October 2022, the 30th anniversary of the Resource Management Act, they officially expired.

2020 Leadership Change

After the 2019 election, on 23 October 2019, former minister of the environment Marian Hobbs was confirmed as the Chair of the newly elected Council through a majority vote by her fellow councillors.^[9][10] Hobbs attracted criticism from her fellow Councillors after she wrote to Minister for the Environment David Parker during the national COVID-19 lockdown asked him whether or not he would consider appointing a commissioner to the Council if she lost a vote on policy implementation.^[11]

Marian Hobbs before her sacking as Chairwoman had on multiple occasions affirmed that she would not step down willingly and although she did declare "my chances are nil" when asked about her possibly retaining the position, she instead wanted the public to witness the removal of her as Chairwoman. Her position was not completely unfounded, as it is thought that a comfortable majority of councillors already supported new leadership.^[12][11]

On 15 June 2020, nine of the Councillors wrote to the Chief Executive, asking for an extraordinary meeting to be called to remove Hobbs as Chair.^[13] An extraordinary meeting of the Council was subsequently called for on 8 July 2021,^[14] where she made an opening statement including "I was too effective in pushing the water reforms" and that "she would not back away from arguing for the environment". It was clear that she had lost the support of the council and she was removed as chair through a majority vote (9-2). Andrew Noone was then elected unopposed as Chair ^[15] and stood successfully for re-election in 2022 in the Dunedin Constituency.^[16] Marian Hobbs resigned on 1 November 2021, and did not stand for re-election in the 2022 Local Elections.