Changes to resource management

Cabinet has agreed that the new resource management system will make it easier to get things done by:

• Unlocking development capacity for housing and business growth.
• Enabling delivery of high-quality infrastructure for the future, including doubling renewable energy.
• Enabling primary sector growth and development, including aquaculture, forestry, pastoral, horticulture, and mining.

The new resource management system must achieve these objectives while also:

• Safeguarding the environment and human health.
• Adapting to the effects of climate change and reducing the risks from natural hazards.
• Improving regulatory quality in the system.
• Upholding Treaty of Waitangi settlements and other related arrangements.

Phase One was the repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act. This was completed in December 2023.

Read more about the repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act and the Spatial Planning Act

Read the Minister’s speech to the New Zealand Planning Institute conference on 22 March 2024 [Beehive website].

Read the proactively released Cabinet minute and Cabinet paper on the RM Reform roadmap from 22 March 2024.

Fast-track Approvals Act

Phase Two started with the introduction of the Fast-track Approvals Bill. The Bill was introduced to Parliament in March 2024, before going to the Environment Select Committee for scrutiny. It passed its final readings in Parliament and became law in December 2024.

The Fast-track Approvals Act's purpose is to deliver infrastructure and other development projects with significant regional or national benefits.  

The Act’s one-stop-shop approach consolidates and speeds up the multiple approval processes under different legislation which are typically required for large and/or complex projects.

A broad range of projects will have access to the fast-track process if they meet eligibility criteria.  Projects may include infrastructure, housing, resource extraction, aquaculture, renewable energy, and other developments.

The Act proposes a number of protections for Treaty settlements, other arrangements and Māori rights and interests.

Read more about the Fast-track Approvals Act

First resource management amendment Bill passed 

The Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2024 was introduced to Parliament in May 2024 and came into force on 25 October 2024.  

The Act amends the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and several national direction instruments.    

The Act has nine key changes that:

1. Exclude the hierarchy of obligations in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) from resource consenting while a review and replacement of the NPS-FM is undertaken.
2. Repeal the low slope map and associated requirements from stock exclusion regulations.
3. Repeal the permitted and restricted discretionary activity regulations and associated conditions for intensive winter grazing from the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F) and replaces these with new regulations for setbacks from waterways and critical source areas
4. Align the provisions for coal mining with other mineral extraction activities under the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB), NPS-FM and NES-F.
5. Suspend for three years requirements under the NPS-IB for councils to identify new Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) and include them in district plans. The Bill also extends some SNA implementation timeframes.
6. Speed up and simplifies the process for preparing and amending national direction, including national environmental standards, national planning standards, national policy statements and the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement.
7. Clarify councils’ ability to consent discharges that would result in significant adverse effects, provided receiving waters are already subject to such effects, and conditions reduce effects over time.
8. Pause the rollout of freshwater farm plans until work to improve the system is finalised. 
9. Restrict notification of freshwater planning instruments (regional policy statements and plans that give effect to the NPS-FM 2020) until a new NPS-FM takes effect or 31 December 2025. This applies from 22 October 2024.  

Read more about the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2024

Read the Primary Production Select Committee report on the Bill [New Zealand Parliament website]

Earlier announcements on the Bill 

Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill [New Zealand Legislation website]  

First amendment Bill introduced to Parliament (23 May 2024) [Beehive website] 

Urgent changes to system through first RMA amendment Bill (23 April 2024) [Beehive website] 

Second RMA amendment Bill

The Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament in December 2024 and has been referred to the Environment Select Committee for consideration.  

Submissions closed on 10 February 2025. Submissions have been published by the committee and can be viewed with information on the progress of the Bill.

View information on the Bill [New Zealand Parliament website].

The Bill can be grouped into four packages.

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:

• Enables the first pillar of the Government’s Going for Housing Growth policies by unlocking land for development.
• Requires councils to demonstrate compliance with the 30-year Housing Growth Targets. These targets will be established through revising the National Policy Statement on Urban Development.
• Makes changes to the Streamlined Planning Process (SPP) to allow councils to opt out of, or modify, the Medium Density Residential Standards. Amendments include requiring the use of an SPP panel of independent hearings commissioners, and making the council, rather than the Minister, the final decision maker.  
• 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 National Development.  
• Enables councils to use the Streamlined Planning Process to de-list heritage buildings, making it easier for owners to modify or demolish these buildings under appropriate circumstances. 

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 system improvements and natural hazards 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 or to assist recovery efforts.
• Clarifies and strengthens councils’ ability to decline land use consents, or impose relevant conditions, where there is significant natural hazard risk.  
• 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 clarifying the scope of further information requests, reducing the need for hearings where appropriate, and specifying that applicants can request to review draft consent conditions.  
• Changes to sand and shingle royalties under the RMA, to align terminology with other legislation and validate the payment of past royalties. 

After consideration by the Environment Select Committee, it is expected the second RMA amendment bill will be passed into law in mid-2025.

The changes in this Bill will be supported by further changes to national direction instruments. More information on these complementary changes will be available in due course.

Replacing the RMA

The Government is proposing to replace the RMA with two new laws.

One law will focus on managing the environmental effects that arise from activities we use natural resources for. 

The other law will focus on enabling urban development and infrastructure. This law will also be aligned with the Government’s Going for Housing Growth plan and its 30-year National Infrastructure Plan.

Read the Government's Going for Housing Growth plan.

Read the National Infrastructure Plan [Te Waihanga - New Zealand Infrastructure Commission website].

Enjoyment of property rights

The Government proposes that Phase 3 of the reforms are based on the enjoyment of property rights and guided by the objectives for the three-year reform programme. 

Enjoyment of property rights means the resource management system should allow people to do more on their own property more easily, as long as it doesn’t harm others. 

Where an activity is harming others, the system should step in to protect property owners’ rights from being compromised by unreasonable activities around them. 

The new system will also support government priorities in housing, infrastructure, primary industries, environment and climate change.

Core principles

Cabinet has agreed that the new resource management system should:

• Narrow the scope of the effects it controls.
• Establish two Acts with clear and distinct purposes – one to manage environmental effects arising from activities and another to enable urban development and infrastructure.
• Strengthen and clarify the role of environmental limits and how they are to be developed.
• Provide for greater use of national standards to reduce the need for resource consents and to simplify council plans, so that standard-complying activity cannot be subjected to a consent requirement. 
• Shift the system focus from consenting before works are undertaken to strengthened compliance monitoring and enforcement. 
• Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure. 
• Achieve efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region jointly prepared by regional and district councils.
• Provide for rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property owners and councils, with a Planning Tribunal (or equivalent) providing an accountability mechanism. 
• Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations. 
• Provide faster, cheaper and less litigious processes within shorter, less complex and more accessible legislation.

Expert Advisory Group

An Expert Advisory Group (EAG) has been established to advise Ministers and officials on matters related to Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) Reform.

The group is made up of experts with relevant technical knowledge covering subjects, including resource management law, planning and te ao Māori.

The primary role of the EAG is to prepare a workable blueprint to replace the RMA, based on the objectives and legislative design principles agreed by Cabinet. This is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. 

Read the RM Reform Expert Advisory Group members' biographies.

• Christmas 2024: The Expert Advisory Group will provide the RMA Reform Minister with a blueprint for replacing the RMA by this date.
• Early 2025: The Minister will seek Cabinet agreement to key aspects of the replacement legislation. 
• Early 2025: Detailed policy work and legislative drafting will begin after Cabinet has agreed to key aspects of the new legislation. 
• Mid-2025: The Government aims to introduce Bills in Parliament. The Select Committee process will be the main mechanism for public consultation.
• Mid 2026: The Government aims to pass Bills into law.