Interesting to see Hon Nick Smith get Environment back again. Perhaps there is a kind of last chance logic to have him hold both the Environment and Building and Housing portfolios, given the desperate need for RMA reform to address the land/housing price insanity.

Perhaps with his genuine greenery, Nick Smith will explore the long overdue changes that would take the lead problem solving role off greenfields development (out instead of up).  Relatively simple law changes could suck the juice out of NIMBYism  in the leafy inner suburbs. It could be all about creating win/win mechanisms so that objectors/voters for Councillors  have a productive alternative to simply blocking all unwanted change.

Nick may have been among the road-blocks for Amy Adams’s stalled reforms. Looking over his shoulder will be Paula Bennett with the odd retention of a welfare portfolio as Minister of Social Housing. Housing costs twice as high as they should be is a major stress on budgets of families with ‘child poverty’