Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act 2025

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About the Act
Themes in the Act
Fact sheets and guidance

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Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act  2025 (New Zealand Legislation website)

Status

The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act is now law.

About the Act

The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Act (the Act) passed into law on 20 August 2025. This is part of the wider programme of resource management reform. 

Find out about our resource management reform programme.

The objective of the Act is to make targeted amendments to the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) that deliver short- to medium-term impacts for system users ahead of replacing the RMA with resource management legislation based on the enjoyment of property rights (Phase 3 RMA Reform). 

The Act progresses Government priorities, including making it easier to consent new infrastructure and new houses, encouraging investment in renewable energy and enhancing the primary sector.

Read the select committee report (New Zealand Parliament website)

Read the regulatory impact statements of the Bill.

Read the supplementary analysis reports.

Themes in the Act

The Act can be grouped into five themes. 

The infrastructure and energy package 

  • Extends the duration of port coastal permits by a further 20 years and provides requiring authority status to ports to allow them to designate land. 
  • Gives effect to the Government’s Electrify NZ reforms to make it easier to consent renewable energy, including by: 
    • establishing 35-year default consent duration for renewable energy activities, and certain long-lived infrastructure 
    • extending the default lapse period of consents associated with renewable energy activities from 5 years to 10 years 
    • establishing a one-year consent processing timeframe for renewable energy activities. 
  • Extends the default lapse period of designations from 5 years to 10 years. 
  • Simplifies information requirements for designating authorities.   

The housing package 

  • Supports the first pillar of the Government’s Going for Housing Growth policies by enabling Auckland Council and Christchurch City Council to opt out of the MDRS while still ensuring sufficient housing capacity. 
  • Provides bespoke solutions for Auckland Council and Christchurch City Council to withdraw their Intensification Planning Instruments.  
    • For Auckland, withdrawal means they must prepare and notify a new plan change using the Streamlined Planning Process (SPP). This plan change must provide at least as much housing capacity as Plan Change 78, give effect to the intensification policies of the NPS-UD, and enable greater heights and densities around key stations benefitting from City Rail Link investment. 
    • For Christchurch, the Minister may approve withdrawal if the council has sufficient feasible housing capacity to meet 30 years of housing demand, plus a 20% contingency.  
  • Amends the SPP and decision-making to: 
    • require the use of an SPP panel of independent commissioners 
    • enable the minister to appoint up to half of the SPP panel  
    • make the council, rather than the minister, the final decision-maker  
    • establish limited appeal rights.  
  • Enables councils to use the SPP to de-list heritage buildings, making it easier for owners to modify or demolish these buildings under appropriate circumstances.  
  • Requires the Wellington City Council to remove the heritage status of the Gordon Wilson Flats from its District Plan, and to make its demolition a permitted activity.  

The farming and primary sector package 

  • Reduces regulatory overlap between the RMA and the Fisheries Act 1996.   
  • Provides more flexibility for marine farms by enabling changes to consent conditions for aquaculture.  
  • Amends Part 9A of the RMA, to better enable industry bodies to deliver farm plan certification and audit services.  
  • Establishes a one-year consent processing timeframe for wood processing activities.  

The natural hazards and emergencies package 

  • Makes changes to emergency provisions under the RMA, including introducing a regulation-making power for the Minister for the Environment to use in the event of an emergency to assist response and recovery efforts. 
  • Clarifies and strengthens councils’ ability to decline land use consents or impose relevant conditions where there is significant natural hazard risk.   

The system improvements package 

  • Amends the compliance regime to better deter offences under the RMA.   
  • Makes technical amendments to Department of Conservation functions to improve their ability to monitor discharges and engage in compliance and enforcement activities.  
  • Provides consenting efficiencies by: 
    • ensuring information requirements are proportionate to the effects of the proposal on the environment 
    • clarifying councils’ ability to request further information 
    • enabling the return of abandoned applications 
    • allowing applicants to request to review draft consent conditions.   
  • Changes the sand and shingle royalties under the RMA so that terminology is aligned with other legislation, and validates the payment of past royalties.  
  • Provides the Minister for the Environment with new intervention powers to ensure compliance with national direction, including Housing and Business Development Capacity Assessments required by the National Policy Statement on Urban Development.   
  • Provides the ‘Plan Stop’ amendment which stops councils from carrying out some plan-making work in advance of the replacement of the RMA.