RM reform update - June 2025 Twenty-Fifth edition
The RM Reform update is for people and organisations with an interest in the reform of the resource management system. If you would like to subscribe to these updates, please click here.
Kia ora koutou,
Welcome to the third Resource Management Reform Update of 2025.
This issue focusses on the consultation work on proposed changes to national direction instruments that opened last month.
As the lead agency, MfE is supporting the Government’s comprehensive overhaul of many of the national direct instruments local government uses to set regulations and plans nationwide.
Information on the proposed changes to national direction for infrastructure and development, the primary sector, and freshwater is now online. Consultation on the first three packages closes on 27 July 2025.
Consultation on the Going for Housing Growth package opened on 18 June and will close on 17 August.
We encourage anyone who wants to participate in the consultation process to have their say on these important changes via the links provided in this issue.
Work is also continuing on policy development related to the Government’s plans to replace the Resource Management Act 1991 and, as lead agency in this work, MfE will update you on legislative developments and opportunities to provide feedback as this work progresses.
Ngā mihi nui, nā
Nadeine Dommisse,
Deputy Secretary, Environment Management and Adaptation
Consultation on proposals to change, or create new, national direction instruments for infrastructure, development and the primary sector opened on 29 May.
It will cover options to amend freshwater national direction and test how housing proposals could fit into the new resource management system.
An overview of the scope of the consultation is available here.
Once finalised, these national direction instruments will set resource management policy and rules for regional and district plans, policy statements and resource consent decisions.
The consultation for the first three packages will run from Thursday 29 May until Sunday 27 July. Consultation on package 4 – Going for Housing Growth – opened on 18 June and will close on 17 August.
The proposals to prepare and amend national direction in Packages 1 and 2 are being consulted on under section 46A of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA). We are also seeking feedback on Packages 3 and 4.
Submissions on the first three packages can be made at: MfE have your say page.
Package 1 – Infrastructure and development
The Government aims to make it easier for councils to plan and deliver infrastructure by making four new national direction instruments for:
- infrastructure
- granny flats (minor residential dwellings)
- papakāinga
- natural hazards
It also intends to amend four existing national direction instruments for:
- renewable electricity generation
- electricity transmission
- distribution and associated activities
- telecommunication facilities.
Package 1: Infrastructure and development – Discussion document | Ministry for the Environment
Package 2 – Primary sector
The Government aims to enable growth in the primary sector by making changes to eight national direction instruments for:
- marine aquaculture
- commercial forestry
- highly productive land
- stock exclusion regulations
- New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement
- and the quarrying and mining provisions (as set out in the national direction for freshwater, indigenous biodiversity and highly productive land).
Package 2: Primary sector – Discussion document | Ministry for the Environment
Package 3 – Freshwater
The Government is seeking feedback on options to amend freshwater national direction to better reflect the interests of all water users, and on whether changes should be implemented under the RMA or new resource management legislation.
Package 3: Freshwater – Discussion document | Ministry for the Environment
Further consultation will be undertaken, later this year, through a more detailed exposure draft of the proposed national direction.
Package 4 – Going for Housing Growth
The Government is seeking feedback on how the proposals in the first pillar of the Going for Housing Growth programme could fit into the new resource management system.
Pillar 1 aims to free up land for development and remove unnecessary planning barriers. This package is a joint consultation run by the Ministry for Housing and Urban Development and the Ministry for the Environment.
Work on legislation to replace the Resource Management Act 1991 is well underway.
The Government announced in March that it plans to replace the RMA with a Planning Act and Natural Environment Act. It aims to introduce Bills in Parliament in late 2025 and pass these into law in mid-2026.
The select committee process will be the main opportunity for New Zealanders to have their say on the Bills' proposals.
MFE staff have spent the last few months providing advice to Ministers who are making detailed policy decisions to inform the drafting of Bills. Staff have also engaged with sector groups about key features of the proposed system.
The Ministry appreciates there is strong interest in how the proposed system will address resource management issues. We recommend that people who are interested in the reforms read the Expert Advisory Group’s blueprint report for replacing the RMA.
Cabinet has agreed that the blueprint report provides a workable basis for a new resource management system. Also, members of the group are reviewing the policy advice the Ministry is providing to Ministers.
We also recommend you read the Cabinet paper that sets out decisions Cabinet made about key features of the new system in March to help gauge what policy Cabinet has already determined and what is still to be decided.
Further information is available on the Ministry website:
This month the Government announced several development and infrastructure projects are before expert panels for approval decisions.
They are the first projects to reach the expert panel stage since the Fast-track process opened on 7 February 2025.
The projects are:
- Delmore (residential subdivision and roading interchange in Orewa)
- Maitahi Village (residential development including commercial centre and a retirement village in Nelson),
- Bledisloe North Wharf and Fergusson North Berth Extension (new and extended wharf facilities at Port of Auckland),
- Milldale (earthworks and site work for approximately 1,100 residential allotments in Wainui, Auckland).
The expert panels’ final decisions to approve or decline these projects are expected from September 2025.
The projects were among 149 projects listed in Schedule 2 of the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024 that could apply directly for the substantive applications stage.
The Minister of Infrastructure recently referred several projects which can now apply for the substantive stage, and consideration by expert panels.
Read the Government’s press release here.
Fast-track projects online
As applications are lodged and progress through the process, Fast-track application documents will be published on the relevant project page of the Fast-track website as soon as possible after the Fast-track team have finished their checks.
The Environment Committee that is scrutinising the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill has released its report.
Submissions on the Bill closed on 10 February and the Committee held hearings in February and March.
The Environment Committee's report is available here.
The Bill is expected to return to Parliament for the final stages of its legislative process later this year and could become law soon after. Updates on the Bill's progress are available here.