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 Bill

Phase Two started with the introduction of the Fast-track Approvals Bill to create a one-stop-shop approvals, consenting and permitting regime to speed up the delivery of regionally and nationally significant projects. 

The Government expects to pass the Fast-track Approvals Bill into law by the end of 2024. 

Read more about the Fast-track Approvals Bill.

First of two RMA amendment bills

Phase Two also includes targeted changes to the RMA, focused on relieving the most significant resource management issues in the short term. 

The first of two RMA amendment bills, the Resource Management (Freshwater and Other Matters) Amendment Bill was introduced to Parliament in May 2024 and is expected to be passed into law by the end of 2024. 

The changes proposed in the first bill would: 

• Exclude the hierarchy of obligations in the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) from resource consenting. This will address concerns raised about the way it is being applied while a review and replacement of the NPS-FM is undertaken. 
• Repeal the contentious low slope map and associated requirements from stock exclusion regulations, reducing costs for farmers. 
• Repeal the permitted and restricted discretionary activity regulations and associated conditions for intensive winter grazing from the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater (NES-F). 
• 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. 
• 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 to 31 December 2030. 
• Speed up and simplify 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. 

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 and package of national direction changes

The second RMA amendment bill will be accompanied by a number of changes to national direction. The changes can be grouped into four packages: 

The infrastructure and energy package will: 

• Develop further national direction to enable a range of energy and infrastructure projects, including a new National Policy Statement for Infrastructure. 
• Provide a consistent approach to quarrying across the resource management system. 
• Extend the duration of port coastal permits by a further 20 years. 
• Change the National Environmental Standard for Telecommunication Facilities to keep up to date with technological developments and give telcos greater certainty and reduced consenting costs as they upgrade their infrastructure. 
• Give effect to the Government’s Electrify NZ reforms to make it easier to consent renewable energy. 

The housing package will:

• Enable the first pillar of the Government’s Going for Housing Growth policies. 
• Require councils to demonstrate compliance with the 30-year Housing Growth Targets. 
• Provide councils with the flexibility to opt out of the Medium Density Residential Standards. 
• Simplify heritage management. 
• Develop new national direction to enable granny flats and papakāinga. 

The farming and primary sector package will: 

• Amend the National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Land to make it clear that indoor primary production and greenhouses are permitted on highly productive land. 
• Specify that farmers are allowed to build new specified infrastructure such as solar farms on highly productive land. 

The emergencies and natural hazards package will: 

• Provide a comprehensive, nationally consistent framework for addressing the risks posed by natural hazards, including risks from climate change, as a single instrument. 
• Include improved emergency provisions to better enable rapid responses to disasters. 

The second RMA amendment bill is expected to be introduced to Parliament before the end of 2024 and be passed into law in mid-2025. The national direction package is expected to follow the same timeline. 

Consultation on these four packages of changes is expected to begin in early 2025. 

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.