Sustainable management and the market : The politics of planning reform in New Zealand

The new resource management legislation in New Zealand has been portrayed by some observers as a ‘progressive’ reconciliation of market liberalism and the principle of sustainable development. This article critically analyses this claim to progress. It is proposed that the Resource Management Act 1991 is, in fact, the product of conflicting political economic agendas (neoliberalism and environmentalism) and that the development and implementation of the new legislation exhibits this inherent contradiction. By use of two examples, we illustrate the conflicts that arise in specific land use policy settings.