2 Jun 2011

New powers for Parliamentary Commissioner

9:32 pm on 2 June 2011

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is to be expanded into a national environmental auditor.

The Environment Minister, Nick Smith, announced a new three-agency model on Thursday.

Dr Smith says he has been refashioning the Ministry for the Environment into a politically neutral policy advisor and creating the Environmental Protection Authority as an integrated, arm's-length regulator.

He says the third agency in the model is the Parliamentary Commissioner's office, which will be given new powers as an environmental auditor and will take over reporting on the national state of the environment.

Dr Smith says the model will be the environmental equivalent of the economic agencies of Treasury, Reserve Bank and Auditor-General.