Much has been made of compliance costs to business and the need to process consents hastily in relation to the Resource Management Act in New Zealand. This obsession with compliance misses the fundamental problem of implementing the RMA — shortcomings in governance. This address will shed some light on this pervasive problem, first by characterizing RMA within the theoretical range of national mandates, then dealing in turn with governance issues at each level in the intergovernmental hierarchy of partnerships established by RMA and LGA. It concludes with brief mention of long term council community planning, because it too is at risk if governance is not improved.