The Government has revealed its plans for a permanent replacement for the Resource Management Act, the 1991 law that has, for more than a decade, been a piñata of blame from politicians who accuse it of failing to adequately protect the environment while stifling development. 

The RMA has ballooned in size, thanks to more than 18 substantive amendments since 1991. The last Labour Government finally repealed it in 2023, replacing it with two new pieces of legislation. 

The coalition Government resurrected the RMA last year and today announced plans to kill it once again and replace it with two new pieces of legislation, which will be focused on allowing people to enjoy property rights. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Under-Secretary to the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Simon Court said the replacement would be passed before the next election. 

The Government’s replacement is somewhat different to Labour’s scheme of an integrated long-term planning-focused system. The coalition’s idea appears to shift the focus from planning to a more liberal regime. One of the two new laws will focus on managing the environmental effects from activities, while the other will focus on enabling urban development and infrastructure. 

Some ideas appear to have survived, however, including the greater use of Beehive-driven national direction, setting out clear nationwide rules on how resources such as freshwater should be managed, the use of spatial planning and reducing the number of plans central and local governments need to join up, by requiring only one regulatory plan per region, jointly prepared by regional and district councils. 

Under the old regime, more than 100 plans needed to be drawn up by councils. Labour’s reforms reduced this to 16. 

There are some new ideas too, including potentially creating a planning tribunal to make resolving planning disputes less costly. 

The idea of an environment-focused and development-focused replacement to the RMA has been floated before by the National Party under the leadership of Simon Bridges and RMA reform spokeswoman Judith Collins in 2019 and was confirmed as party policy when Collins became leader in 2020. The model is used in places such as Scotland. 

Bishop said the RMA had “hindered economic growth and productivity, whilst failing to improve the environment”. 

“The RMA consenting system is an active barrier against New Zealand achieving its climate change goals – a recent report by the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission showed that NZ is on track to miss between 11 and 15% of emission reductions from energy and transport by 2050 due to consenting delays.” 

Bishop split the Government’s RMA reform agenda into three parts. The first was its fast-track regime, currently working its way through Parliament; the second is several “quick fixes” to the existing RMA as an interim measure; while phase three is working out a permanent replacement. 

Key aspects of the new system will go to the Cabinet for agreement before the end of this year and legislation will be introduced and passed before the next election. 

Court said property rights would be “at the centre” of the new regime. 

“Rules should only restrict activity with material spillover effects on other people’s enjoyment of their own property, or on the property rights of the wider natural environment that sustains us.” 

The rest of the details of the proposal are yet to be worked out. The Cabinet has appointed an advisory group to work with the Ministry for the Environment on the reforms and given the group 10 guiding principles to consider. The Cabinet is expected to make further decisions later this year on the shape of reforms. 

The guiding principles for the new law are: 

- Narrow the scope of the resource management system to focus on managing actual effects on the environment. 

- 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 simplify council plans. This would mean that an activity which complies with the standards cannot be subject to a consent requirement. 

- Shift the focus away from consenting before activities can get underway, and towards compliance, monitoring and enforcement of activities’ compliance with national standards. 

- Use spatial planning and a simplified designation process to lower the cost of future infrastructure. 

- Realise efficiencies by requiring one regulatory plan per region, jointly prepared by regional and district councils. 

- Provide for a rapid, low-cost resolution of disputes between neighbours and between property owners and councils, with the potential for a new Planning Tribunal (or equivalent). 

- Uphold Treaty of Waitangi settlements and the Crown’s obligations. 

- Provide faster and cheaper processes with less reliance on litigation, contained within shorter and simpler legislation that is more accessible. 

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.