October 2008

  President's Message

As I mentioned in my last missive, at the end of September I attended the Annual Conference of the Resource Management Law Association of New Zealand (RMLA) in Dunedin.  As well as savouring the wonderful country around the city of Dunedin and the southern end of the South Island, I enjoyed two days of very stimulating and interesting papers on water rights and water footprints, biodiversity offsets, nutrient management models and the state of World Heritage protection.  Some of the papers are now available for purchase in the latest edition of the RMLA's Resource Management Theory & Practice Journal through the RMLA website (and you may remember seeing an email about it too).

Many of the papers would also have been at home on a conference program in Australia which just goes to show how much we have in common with our colleagues in New Zealand.  It also reinforces the decision of the NELA National Executive to enter into a memorandum of understanding with the RMLA.  The RMLA President, Camilla Owen, and I executed the MoU at the RMLA Conference and in doing so we are looking forward to growing a deeper and mutually beneficial relationship between the two organisations.  We will circulate a fact sheet about the MoU and what it is about soon but in essence it provides for mutual recognition of NELA and RMLA memberships and provides a platform for a more formal exchange of information.  On the mutual membership recognition side, if a member of NELA moves to New Zealand it means that you can take full advantage of the seminar programs, publications and other activities offered by the RMLA at RMLA-member rates without having to formally join the RMLA.  You will need to maintain your NELA membership of course (so you can stay in touch with what's happening at home!).  For RMLA-members who move to Australia, they will be able to participate in NELA events and receive the National Environmental Law Review and other NELA news whilst here.  If you've logged onto the NELA website recently, you will see that we have made some changes to the structure of the site to better accommodate information from the RMLA.On the exchange of information front, you will be aware that NELA and the RMLA already support the development and operation of the Environmental Law Roundtable of Australia and New Zealand (ELRANZ).  This support will continue and the editorial teams of both organisations will be looking at developing a broader focus for our flagship publications to encompass environmental issues of importance across the Tasman.  So it means if you are thinking of writing an article for publication in the NELR, think about how it might apply to New Zealand and offer it for publication there as well! On other news, the publication of the papers from the Fremantle Conference by ThomsonReuters publishing is on track and will be available for purchase in November.  In addition to the papers written for the Conference, Dr Chris Mitchell, who gave a fascinating Keynote speech to open the Conference, has kindly written a chapter for the book and Justice Brian Preston, the Chief Judge of the New South Wales Land and Environment Court has written the Foreward.  Add this book to your library's Christmas wish list!!Enclosed with this Bulletin is information about the forthcoming Annual General Meeting for NELA.  Please note the date and time in your calendars and try to attend if you can (or at least send a proxy!).  It would be great to have a strong turnout from the membership and to have some new faces involved in the operation of our association.

Robyn Glindemann